Guardian of the Night
by Way-of-the-pathfinder
Summary: Set six months after the Last Jedi, Kylo Ren is haunted by the nightmare that Rey will die at his hands. Torn by his desire to save her and the urging of his heart to follow his destiny as Supreme Leader of the First Order. Rey is focussed on making a real difference to the Resistance. There's one big problem though, the Force has given her another job - to save Ben Solo.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: In a dream, in a nightmare **Chapter Text**

The giant ceiba forests of Altarrn loomed large and black before a single upsilon-class command shuttle came to land. In the moonless night, shuttle lights peered out like two glowing beams in the rain-laden clouds, leaving silver contrails in its wake.

The night was still but not quiet. The forest was alive. High-pitched howls of spidery night-gliders, insects murmured and the constant rumble of an approaching storm filled the rich night-air.

Kylo Ren's ship came low above the canopy as the trees thrashed and scattered leaves below. The black durasteel wings of his ship rose up like a sleek bird of prey as it landed in an open clearing. A ramp lowered to the ground with a loud hiss and Kylo marched out of its steaming mouth. Lashes of rain pelted the shuttle. He reached the sodden ground below and mud oozed and squelched beneath his boots.

The Knights of Ren awaited him, their outlines shady and faces darker yet.

"Supreme Leader," said the first, bowing. "It is done. We have destroyed the Resistance."

Kylo was silent, his face blank behind his featureless mask. He knew they were watching him - searching for some kind of response, or weakness. He gave them nothing.

The field before him was layered in bodies — burnt, broken, twisted corpses. His head sweeping this way and that, searching for something or someone, he reached out with his mind, seeking… her.

He exhaled slowly. Rey was not among the dead.

And yet, there was something. A feeling. A tremor in the Force.

Kylo could feel their connection. He could feel her fear as though it were his own. He could feel it seeping coldly through him and, lastly, he could feel her hope, faint, fluttering, like a dying star.

"The girl?" he asked.

Eoin Ren, his oldest and tallest knight, stepped forward and threw a body at Kylo's feet. It began to move slowly and Kylo breathed again, unaware he had even stopped.

Rey rubbed her hands, raw and red where they were once tied. And then she faced him, Her wild beseeching eyes almost pulled him from his purpose —almost.

Her leg was bleeding and the wrist of her left arm couldn't sustain any weight. Even still, her face was locked in steely determination.

She would not be owned though all hope was lost.

She shivered as pelting hammers of freezing rain beat down upon her. Her fingers caked with mud as she probed the ground searching for some kind of weapon, a rock, a stick, anything she could fight with. He came closer and she looked at him with narrow eyes. _No!_ she wouldn't take this without a fight. No matter how much pain she was in. He saw her getting ready to pounce, to tear at him with her bare hands if she had to. Even now, in the end, he admired it.

Kylo stepped closer once more but quick as a Mon Cala eel she lunged at him and froze. Trapped within herself. Four of the knights had their hands extended, forcing and an impenetrable hold on her. Kylo activated his lightsaber and the fiery red sword blazed to life. The blade snarled and he felt the heat from his kyber crystal burning and hungry in his hands. The dark side of the Force fed his resolve. It made him strong, tearing away his hesitation, his weakness… his sentiment.

"Ben! Please don't do this!" Rey cried out to him through their bond but her words echoed in an empty void.

Raising a gloved-hand, the saber lifted to her neck, burning her with spitting fire in the waiting silence. Their eyes met briefly before he swung his arm back and then skewered her with a killing blow.

The thread of life snipped from her eyes and Rey fell, lifeless, into the killing fields of Altaarn, alongside her friends and the last of the Resistance. In the fleeting moment of her death, Kylo saw the dawning horror that she had been wrong about him.

There was no light left in Kylo Ren.

—-

"NO!"

A shrieking buzz woke Kylo Ren with a jolt. He lurched forward, eyes blinking in the darkness of his chambers. A hand-held pager vibrated loudly on his bedside table. Kylo reached for it and sent it hurtling across the room, smashing against the wall.

His breathing was fast and hurried and even now his heart throbbed heavily in his chest. Running his tremoring hands through his hair he tried to bring his thoughts to centre. It was just a dream, a nightmare… or was it?

This nightmare had been growing and changing for some time. Each week the edges of that dream grew sharper and more visceral until he could no longer deny three things.

It was a vision of the future.

A warning.

A promise.

Kylo wrung his hands together and swallowed hard but his mouth was dry. His eyes fell to the disfigured mask of his grandfather's mask lying in a pile of ash. Vadar gave him no answers now. His voice had stopped the moment he stepped over Supreme Leader Snoke's disgusting sheath of a body. Now he was truly alone. There was no one else to twist and malign his mind now, except himself.

 _Breathe_. He focused his mind on the word. His bare chest rising and falling as the Force around him quietened to a gentle tidal flow.

His bedroom was dark and empty. A light above the window flickered erratically and popped, plunging the room into grey.

Outside the window, pinpricks of stars sharpened as his eyes adjusted to the light. Leaning his head against the cool transparisteel window he gazed out at them, searching for that part of the Force that had once connected him to Rey.

 _Rey…_ her name caught in his chest like an insect trapped in a web. He sunk further into the window, refreshed by the ice-cold feeling of space against his face. His eyes squeezed closed.

 _Rey…_ He tried not to even think of her. Not now. It had been six months to the day since Rey had shut him out of their bond. She had chosen her side, it hardly mattered what side that was. It was not his side.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying harder not to see her proud and resolute face as she looked down at him kneeling in the dark pit of his failure. The Falcon's door shut and he flinched at the memory.

The events surrounding Crait, even the battle itself, were largely a blur now. From the moment she had turned him down, a thick blanket of rage had crushed him. His thoughts had come fast, his actions faster.

Kylo had also tried to close himself off from their bond but now he wanted to let the fingers of his mind reach out to her. They did so hungrily, fasting for too long. He shouldn't do it. She wouldn't let him in. But still, he had to try.

The irony of it all was not lost on him. For the past six months, almost every available resource under his command had been tasked with the job of hunting her and the Resistance.

And yet here he was, alone in the quiet of his bedroom, searching the stars to make sure she was safe. He didn't care how crazy that seemed. There was no one left to sift through his most private thoughts, he could have his secrets, buried deep in the tomb of his heart.

He wondered if he could re-open the bond from his his end. Then he might see her, speak with her, maybe even touch her, it was ... overwhelming.

The Force opened like blank canvas before him and he focused on the memory of her energy within the Force, bright and pulsing like a living sun. The warmth flowed through her in the light, unceasing and bright. There was something calming about it, like a clear blue sea with the whisper of a breeze.

Kylo held the memory of her as an anchor in his mind and searched further still. He found small distant lights around him, signatures of other force-sensitives throughout the galaxy but none of them belonged to Rey.

"Where are you?" He asked into the void as casually as he could. But, even the sound of his voice was a facade.

The door of his chambers opened with a mechanical hiss. BB-9E whirled around towards him until a red light fixed itself on Kylo's chest. A mix of sharp beeps and low growls reverberated from the droid.

"What is it?"

The droid spat out a collection of long and short beeps. Kylo considered the droid quietly for a moment before grabbing his comlink.

"Hux!" he said. "What is this about?'

"Supreme Leader, we tried to page your earlier. We've received reports from Veros. They have been approached by the Resistance. It is reported a Corellian YT-1300f light freighter carrying the general and some other key Resistance members have arrived — including the girl."

Kylo clenched his fist and drew it to his chin, swallowing slowly, thoughtfully, assessing the situation that was now before him. He had been waiting for this intel for half a year and now he had it, he didn't quite know what to with it.

"Supreme Leader — are you there?"

Kylo thought about the last time she had seen him, how cold she had been? What would she do now if he captured them? How far she would go to save her friends…

"Supreme Leader, shall I send out a crew?" said Hux, interrupting the flow of his thoughts.

"What?" Kylo jumped. "They're still there?

"Yes! They're on planet. My contact in the court of Veros is stalling them until they hear from us."

Kylo Ren sprang to life, his eyes alert and bright as he paced back and forth giving orders to Hux.

"Prepare the ship to leave. I want ground crews prepped and ready to go. Tie fighter pilots on standby and notify the fleet to be ready to converge on our location…"

"The fleet!?"

"Do it." His voice was low and threatening like a thundering storm, threatening to destroy everything in its path.

"But Supreme Leader—"

"Have your pilots enter the coordinates for Veros immediately," Kylo cut him off. "That ship is not to leave, they are not to escape. When you find them, pull all their records. Take whatever resources they have. No mistakes. We will get that piece of junk once and for all. Do you hear me?"

"What of the prisoners?" Hux asked.

"Interrogate them."

"We can use the mind breaker…" Hux's voice went up an octave at the thought. Kylo sickened at his psychotic amusement at using such a device. It was Hux's idea but Snoke encouraged him in it. Kylo had often heard the screams of Hux's victims from Snoke's chamber. The previous supreme leader liked to listen,,, and watch.

"And what of Snoke's murderer — the girl?" Hux asked. "Shall I order the men to shoot on sight. We cannot risk her coming aboard."

"Leave her to me!" he hissed.

A long silence followed and there it was, Kylo straightened, a small smile edging onto his lips. He was ready to face her now. He was stronger, and more than ever resolved to the dark.

He would not be seduced by her.

Not this time.

Not ever.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2. Veros**

The atmosphere of Veros was like a furnace on Rey's skin, drying her lips and eyes as each minute passed. There was something familiar about it though. Memories of Jakku flooded back to her, with its long hot days and coarse cream-coloured sand.

So much had changed in the last year of her life. It was soothing going back to those old memories. Like slipping on an old pair of shoes. They may have been uncomfortable, but she knew them, and they fit.

Red sand danced across her boots as she kicked through the broken wreckage of a small shuttle, a hot breath of wind sweeping past her.

She paused. The air pressure was changing.

Eyes blinking, she stared off into the distant shifting dunes. The line along the horizon was smudged with a brown haze as thunderheads loomed overhead like giant war hammers.

"How are you doing, Rose?" she called out.

Rose Tico was crouched down on all fours with thick black bangs falling over her eyes beneath her head wrap. She sifted through the sand, passing the time with celebratory yelps or moans depending on what she found. She wore her usual maintenance greens, a head-wrap Rey had made for her, and a pair of oversized goggles.

"I think I've found everything we can use. You?" Rose asked.

"Just about," Rey added.

Earlier that day, the Falcon had landed on Veros to bargain with the local tribe for some hyperdrive fuel. Rey and Rose spotted the broken ships as they descended. A whole line of them left to rot on a high plateau, surrounded by rocky outcrops.

Rey had been out here for the better part of the day now, sifting through the junkyard of decommissioned ships.

Scavenging again. She smiled at the thought. This was something she knew. Something she could understand. Her life in Jakku was simple in those days. Hard, but simple. All she had to do was survive-and wait.

She hadn't said goodbye to her old life. And being out here in the silent, sparse desert had given her time to reflect on how drastically everything had changed.

Now there were expectations that went far beyond putting food on the table. The Resistance had travelled from one side of the galaxy to the other, drumming up support, seeking food and supplies, weapons, funds, military support, government influence, allies, allegiances...It was a game of politics and power, and, somehow, Rey had become a key player in all of it.

So, for these treasured hours, she stepped back from being the Jedi and just became "the girl". The scavenger with no one's expectations to meet but her own.

In truth, she had hoped to come here alone. To have some space to breathe and think about things. But Rose had been so excited at the prospect of them exploring together that she couldn't say no. Not after everything they had been through. So, silently, she sidelined that desire for solitude, and they made a day of it.

Not that she minded. The 5"2' ship's mechanic had become a dear friend these past months. They spoke the same language, appreciating the working parts of a project, and not just the finished product.

She was dear to her. Her first female friend.

They were all dear to her now: Leia, Chewie, Rose, Poe and, of course, Finn. Still, there were times she'd never felt more alone. The Resistance were visionaries. They dreamt of a better galaxy with freedom and fairness and peace. But Rey's thoughts were smaller. She liked to focus on the simple way the Force moved around them, like an ocean. The way it sang to her with unity or cried in disharmony. Dark and light, whispering secrets of death and rebirth.

And so, she saw life play out around her like a stage play as she waited for instructions on what her part should be. No one know seemed to know, or at least they hadn't told her yet. They kept secrets from her, top-level classified information that only Leia and Poe discussed when they were sure the rest of the crew were sleeping.

That was okay, she had secrets too…

Rey let a handful of sand sift through her fingers, redirecting her thoughts to the task at hand.

She moved her feet along the shifting sand and dropped to examine a small piece of metal wedged into the ground.

It was half of a switchboard panel with frayed wires sticking out at odd angles against the charred metal. The wires were still good though, and, with a few adjustments, she might be able to reuse the parts.

"No!" Rose marched over to Rey. Her voice was stern but there was an unmistakable gleam in her eye. The true measure of Rose's love and exasperation.

"What is it?" Rey asked, innocently.

"No more junk! Working parts only. Remember?"

Rey turned the little piece over in her hands. She could use the metal for reconstructing her broken lightsaber, and they always needed the extra wire. Who knows? Maybe they could even repair it?

"You can't salvage that. It's completely broken," Rose said, seeming to guess her thoughts.

"It's all broken, Rose. But I bet we could use part of this for the faulty compressor and look at the wires!" she teased. "They're copper…"

Rose came closer and brushed her fingers against them, her lips pressed together.

"Hmm. I suppose we can always do with some copper wiring… But that's it now. No more little junkie pieces, okay?"

"Deal," said Rey as she slung the piece into her knapsack with a loud click.

"I don't think there's anything you couldn't salvage."

Rey turned away before Rose could see the smile fall away from her face.

There was one thing she could think of…

A hot breeze ran alongside her body, lifting the red sand to whip across her legs.

Despite the heat, Rey shivered as the surrounding air seemed to change into something sharper and focussed.

She could feel the midday heat radiating from the sand in thick invisible waves. The tiny beats of desert creatures scurrying along the sand. The giant thunderheads streaked across a pale blue sky rumbling with a distant warning.

The Force was opening up to her. Engulfing her. She drunk it in, feeling the light flowing through her. An invisible tunnel seemed to close around where she stood, silencing everything but the sound of her hurried breathing.

And then she felt it, raw as a live wire. A presence in the Force, like a raging sea, powerful and tumultuous.

 _Ben._

He was searching for her. She hadn't felt him this close for months, but there he was just beyond an invisible door within the Force. Her breath quickened, and she thought about letting the connection join.

"I'm done now. Do you need more time?" Rose said, her voice muffled and distant.

The connection was slipping. Untethered, it had nothing to join with. She could still save it. All she had to do was reach out…

"You're doing that thing again!"

"Huh?" Rey grunted, her eyes adjusting to the bright light of the world around her.

"Your Force stare."

"Is that what you call it?" Rey laughed as she grabbed a handful of nuts and bolts that she stuffed into her knapsack.

"What were you thinking anyway?"

She shrugged, a blush creeping over her chest and coiling up her neck. "Nothing!"

"Rose! Rey!" Leia's voice travelled up through the rocky outcrop, soft and distant.

"Oh well, I guess that's us done." Rey packed up her things and walked away.

"I guess so," Rose said, also picking up her bag and falling into step behind her.

The girls slid down the scree slope, a cascade of a tiny rocks drifting down around them. Rey moved with the grace of a crystal fox, nimbly gliding on one foot and then the other. Rose, on the other hand, was all arms and legs, flailing, stumbling, and cursing every step of the way until she reached the bottom and erupted in a fit of giggles. Rey loved her for it.

The Millennium Falcon had landed by the opening of a narrow canyon, sharp walls of fire and amber-coloured rock looming all around them. Leia and Chewie stood by the ship's open ramp as Rey and Rose approached.

"We should get going soon—there's a dust storm on the way," Rey said.

Chewie growled, and Leia exchanged a concerned glance with him. They looked back towards the dark mouth at the end of the canyon.

The entrance of the Verosian village opened into a gaping, black hole beneath one of the canyon walls. There were no doors, no guards, and no sound. A silent empty mouth of rock, luring and open like a natural trap of some carnivorous lifeform.

"Where's Poe?" Rose asked.

"He's not back yet," Leia confessed, leaning on her cane.

"That's a bit odd, isn't it?"

Leia didn't reply, but her tired brown eyes fixed on Rey, searching for some kind of answer or reassurance. "Can you feel anything, Rey?"

Rey met Leia's warm, dark gaze. Ben's eyes—the thought escaped before she even had a chance to reign it in.

Rey turned away, searching for a natural point of focus. She found a sharp obsidian rock lying in the sand, and it was enough to ground her. She reached out and felt its heat and sharpness in the Force. It awoke her mind to the energy within and around her. She focussed on the dark cave at the base of the canyon. It was cool and the air odorous. In a large open hallway, the Verosian's busied themselves, bustling around something... around _someone._

 _Poe!_

They brought him wine and food while children played about his feet. Merchants presented him with different quantities and prices of hyperdrive fuel.

Rey felt Poe's presence, like the fluttering of an excited child. She grinned, sensing his confidence and inner monologue, a mix of cocky self-affirmations. Rey rolled her eyes, but then, there was something else. The slightest hint of doubt was creeping into Poe's mind. Rey honed in on that doubt as she stumbled through more of his thoughts. The meeting had gone on for far too long. The Verosians were too pleasant—they were waiting…

Finn came down the ramp to join them. "Maybe we should check on him?"

"Hey Rey," he said with a smile. Then, he turned, his cheeks flushing slightly. "Rose."

Rey lost her train of thought, brows furrowing. The ex-storm trooper was a bundle of nervous energy. He disrupted the Force around her making it difficult to focus. She tried to block him out, but the Force darted around him like a swarm of insects.

"Finn, can you…" she began to ask him to leave when a sound from deep in the belly of the cave caught their attention.

It was a single sound, but they knew it well. A blaster shot.

Rey, Rose, Leia and Chewie snapped their heads in the direction of the cave, readying their blasters. A consuming silence followed.

A shout. Then another. And another. The commotion became louder until it sounded like a great beast roared within the belly of the cave.

"Fire up the engines, Chewie," Leia commanded.

The Wookie disappeared up the ramp as two small specks appeared at the other end of the canyon. Poe and BB-8 were coming towards them, fast. Poe waved the laser over his head and a wave of bellowing Verosians spilled out onto the sand, hot on his tail.

"Go, go, go!" he shouted.

Leia, Rey, Rose, and Finn bolted within the Falcon. Finn and Rose went to the guns while Rey and Leia waited atop the ramp, beckoning Poe to hurry.

Finally, BB-8 whizzed up the ramp, and Poe leapt up behind him as the ramp pulled to a close.

Poe collapsed onto the ground, exhausted by the effort of his run. The Falcon lurched up, causing them all to stumble.

"Negotiations went well then?" Rey asked, her eyes sparkling.

"They… said… no," he tried to get the words out between panting breaths.

"Did you stick to the script?" Leia asked.

"Not exactly."

BB-8's mechanical head spun around as an answer, and Poe nudged him aside with his boot.

"Hey! It was going well. I got this at least." He held up a canister of hyperdrive fuel.

Leia sighed, bearing down on the weight of her cane even more. "You _stole_ from them?"

"Trust me, you won't mind when I tell you the full story."

Leia rolled her eyes.

"We will talk about this later," she said and headed to the cockpit, leaving Poe and Rey alone with BB-8. The little droid's mechanical head looked back and forth between them both.

Poe pulled himself to his feet, running his hand through his thick dark hair and straightening his jacket.

"You should have come with me. I could have used your help in there," Poe said, dusting red earth from his elbows and knees.

"And miss the look on your face when they kicked you out? No thank you!"

"You know we would have made a pretty good team…the best star pilot in the galaxy…"

"The Resistance," Rey interjected.

"The _galaxy_ ," Poe reiterated. "And the last Jedi."

He leant back slightly, nodding his head in appreciation of the image.

"Do we have someone to pilot this ship or not?" echoed a stern voice from around the corner.

They both froze at the words, and a devilish smile appeared on Poe's lips.

"You can fly," he gestured for her to go first, but Rey hesitated. The question of who should pilot the Falcon had become something of a game between them. Chewie remained a steady co-pilot but the pilot's chair was in constant contention.

"Thanks." Rey narrowed her eyes. She took one slow, watchful step past him, bracing for something to happen but nothing did.

"In your dreams." He laughed, and with a sudden yank, she was behind him. They fought their way to the cockpit until Poe slipped ahead of her and into the pilot's chair with a wink.

"Is everything alright?" Leia asked.

"Everything is just fine," Poe said with a chortle, but then the smirk from his face dropped.

Rey followed his gaze as three large war-ships materialised out of the desert ground.

"You've got to be kidding me!? They live in holes in the ground, but they have ships like that!"

"You had to go and steal from them," Leia growled from behind him.

"Well, they're going to have to catch us first!"

Poe engaged thrusters, and the Falcon shot through the magenta sky with the three Verosian warships following swiftly on its tail.

"Engage the rear deflection shield," Poe ordered Chewie.

A shuddering blast pummeled the ship as one of the Verosian ships met their target. Poe dropped the ship suddenly and circled back, the Falcon firing its own laser cannons manned in defence.

Then, what looked to be a flock of birds on the surface, shot up into the sky. Hundreds of tiny two-man fighters circled below them until the fleet banked skywards towards the Falcon, each of them firing dozens of thin lasers towards them.

Poe piloted the Falcon back towards the three war-ships until they each converged on them, flanking either side of the Falcon, forcing it higher and higher into the atmosphere.

The dusky pink sky began to fall below them as they gained altitude. The Verosian fleet moved in closer, completely surrounding them.

"You got any good ideas, Rey?"

Rey shrugged. She had been considering how she might shield them with the Force when, suddenly, their attackers fell back and the Millennium Falcon shot out into the empty black space ahead.

Poe let out a whoop, and Leia ruffled Chewie's hair as they fell into a slow orbit above Veros, calculating their next move. But Rey was quiet as she watched the swirling rust-red planet growing smaller in size.

"Why would they stop?" Rey asked, but no one answered.

She looked about, a sickening feeling rising up in her stomach. There were no signs of any other ships. Even still, a subtle dread made her feel like something was coming for them, like a slow tide trapping them unaware.

Finally, she saw it. On the dashboard before Poe, a small red light began flicking on and off, matched by a slow beep that cut through the silence.

Chewie and Rey exchanged slow and wide-eyed looks.

"What's that then?" Poe asked.

"Proximity alert," Rey breathed. "Chewie, can you see what it is?"

He didn't need to as the view of the pink sky of Veros transformed into blackness. An enemy ship, so large and close that it completely dwarfed the view of their planet. Black twisted metal laid before them, functional but streaked with glowing red lights.

"Is that…" Rey began.

"A mega-class star dreadnought," Poe muttered.

"It's the Finaliser," he added, throwing a sharp look in Leia's direction.

"Shut everything down now," Leia whispered.

"Switching to emergency power." Poe's fingers darted over some switches in front of him and the external and internal lights went black. The gentle thrumming of the Millennium Falcon's engine came to a stop. The single red proximity alert was the only sound and light in the cockpit. It splashed red shadows across their faces.

Rey's hand gripped the back of Poe's chair, the whites of her knuckles showing. The sound of her breath echoed long and slow within her chest. Silence wrapped around her, and one-by-one the hairs raised upon her forearms.

And then, she felt him.

Not across the galaxy, not through their bond, but there right in front of her in that metal shell looming above.

Waiting, watchful, and hungry for her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3. Reunion**

An wall of silence enveloped the Millennium Falcon. The ship remained still, fixed within the dreadnought's shadow. The emergency power indicator splashing the walls of the cockpit with blood-red light.

Flash. Darkness. Flash. Darkness.

Rey's heart thrummed within her, loud and fast. She clutched her elbow with one arm, teeth gnawing at her bottom lip.

 _He sees us, he sees us,_ the words raced around her head. The black mass ever-towering above them, blotting out the sun, their escape, their hope.

"The Finalizer!" Finn's whispered words filled the haunting emptiness of the cabin. He and Rose stood behind them, wide-eyed and still, their gaze locked on the ship. "I hate that ship."

"Me too, buddy," Poe said. "And I'm not going back there anytime soon."

Rose stalked towards the controls, eyes scanning the various data reports. "Their sensors won't pick up any power residue from the ship. The only way they'll know we're here is if someone looks out the window."

Rey closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She tried to ignore the anxious shuffling of Poe's feet beneath the console, the loud laboured breathing of General Organa, Rose's turbulent emotions, and the overwhelming scent of fear dripping from Finn. She tried to hold back the dread sliding through her own veins, churning her stomach—a violent mix of dread and anticipation.

"Kylo Ren is on that ship." Her words came out like a strained whisper.

"You're paranoid!" said Poe. "He could be on any of the ships we've seen these past six months. What makes you think he's on this one?"

Leia met her eyes. They both knew it to be true. "She's right, Poe. He's here."

 _We need to go!_ Rey willed the words to Leia, silent and pleading, but the General did not respond. Leia's small hand clutched onto the back of Chewie's chair, two blue-fire opal stones stared up at Rey like a pair of glowing eyes. Her wedding ring. Rey had never noticed it until now, but for some reason, the way the gold threaded those two gems together captivated her. Tied together. Like she was. Like they were.

Ben's presence in the Force manifested like the dawning of a great sun on the horizon of her mind. The Force ripped around him like a maelstrom. Moving, searching...hunting.

She wondered how much had he given himself over to the dark, without Snoke, without her, and even without Luke? How far had he allowed himself to go into the dark places of his mind?

Rey slammed her mind shut to block him out, but the Force was too strong, his thoughts too loud. They almost shouted at her from across space.

He wanted the ship, to crush it into ash like the garbage that it was.

He wanted the crew, to make an example of them for standing against him and the power of the First Order.

And lastly, he wanted her with a mad, driving hunger.

His presence weaved through the rooms, feeling its way along the corridors of the Falcon. Invisible fingers rifling through space, seeking a way to reach her, to draw her in.

 _Rey._

The voice slipped between her thoughts like a creeping shadow.

 _Rey._

Louder now. Insistent. Like the guttural growl of thunder rumbling through her.

 _No_. She would not be drawn in.

"No!" This time the she said it aloud, to herself, to him.

The air around her intensified, alive with danger and warning. The broken shards of disharmony trembled, trying to realign within the gathering storm.

"We need to get out of here, Poe!" Even as she said it, she could feel Ben's urgency as he yanked at the bond, forcing it to yield. "Now! We need to go right now!"

"We light up the hyperdrive, and it'll be like sending out a homing beacon. They'll see us!"

"They already see us!"

"Why haven't they shot us down then?" Poe said.

"Raise shields!" Leia ordered.

Poe switched to full power, and one-by-one, the lights of Millennium Falcon flickered on. The freighter groaned as the sublight engines roared to life.

Rey glued her eyes to the three deflector shields powering up, watching as the shield indicator read: _10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent..._

An explosion of light flashed before them as a deafening boom rocked the Falcon.

"Damage?" Leia shouted.

Poe scanned the monitors streaming in Corellian letters. "We're okay. They didn't hit us."

"They wouldn't miss at that range," Leia said. "That was a warning."

Poe faced Finn, brows furrowed. "Since when does the First Order fire warning shots?"

"They don't…"

Rey watched, pale-faced, as the shields continued to build a protective layer around them. _50 percent, 60 percent…_

"They're hailing us. What do you want to do, General?"

"No response, just get us out..."

Her words were cut short by another boom rocking the ship so violently the crew tumbled and grasped for balance. Billowing alarms triggered throughout the cockpit and somewhere a sprinkler began to spill down the hallway.

"Damn it!" Poe shouted, slamming his fist on the console."That one was a hit."

"We can't wait any longer," Rey urged.

"Jump us to hyperspace!" Leia commanded, her fingers stabbing coordinates into the ship's computer.

"Alright. Hang on back there!" Poe switched on the hyperdrive engines and the Falcon lurched with a sickening pull.

Rey waited for the familiar feeling of being wrenched through space. Only there wasn't one.

The Falcon keened onto its side. Engines roared, and the ship quaked with the full power of the hyperdrive, still locked in place beneath the dreadnought.

"Come on old girl, don't mess with me now, you beautiful hunk of junk!" Poe restarted the engines but as he did the ship lurched again, this time towards the Finalizer.

"What the hell is going on?" Poe shouted. His fingers punched the switches at the helm, swearing and searching for a way to boost their power.

Chewie bellowed, running through the corridor of the Falcon towards the maintenance bay. Porgs scattered with high-pitched cries, fluttering in his wake.

The Falcon thrashed and pummeled, and the grip around them tightened even stronger, dragging them ever forward.

"They've got us in the tractor beam!" Poe cried.

Leia caught her bottom lip between her teeth, tearing at it nervously. "That doesn't feel like any tractor beam."

"No," Rey said, grimly, looking at each of them. "He's pulling us in."

"That's impossible!" Poe scoffed, slamming the ship into hyperspeed. The Falcon writhed and banked again, still anchored in space.

"Excuse me," Rey whispered with ashen lips. She ignored the others' questioning looks as she ran from the cockpit, thankful to be away from their watchful eyes while she did this.

Alone, she reached out her hand, and the Force tightened around her.

"Yes," a voice whispered from the shadows.

Rey scoured the room, searching for the source. That was not Ben's voice…

"Open it," the gravelly voice hissed again but this time it faded away. She had no time to think about it now. She had to stop him.

Rey cracked her neck from side to side and pushed her shoulders back, breathing deep. She retreated into her mind, pulling her panicked and scattered thoughts together, aligning them with the Force—with peace.

 _Let go_! She sent the words through their bond. In response, she felt the grip tighten and the Falcon groaned.

 _You have my attention,_ she thought, _now..._

 _LET GO_! She beat those words out again, her command fierce and unyielding.

This time she met his power with her own and pried his fingers away, stripping the dark with the light.

If only she could keep him back long enough for Poe to re-engage the hyperdrive, then they had a chance of escape.

Rey closed her eyes, entirely focused on channelling her strength in the Force to push him back. She slammed his invisible grip back towards Finalizer and felt the power of Ben's attack a last effort, she charged at him again ready to break the hold once and for all. The air around her seemed sharpened with a waking electricity. She opened her eyes, and the Falcon and the Finalizer were gone.

In their place—darkness, so deep and empty, the light strained out of it. The only sign of light and shape was anchored in front of her.

" _Ben,_ " Rey breathed. The sound was hollow and loud in her ears, as though she were standing in a wind tunnel. He stood towering before her, only footsteps away. His black hair tossed around his face, wild and unkept. A heavy cloak hung from his shoulders and draped over his raised arm. Ben's face was warped with effort, eyes narrow and dark. She could feel his anger and urgency pulled taut around them like a chain.

Their gaze met, and he blinked. His eyes went wide, small pools of light reflecting in them from the light of his control room. His chest expanded with the sudden intake of breath at the sight of her. She could hear it through the bond, feeling it almost, matching her own.

His anger was fading fast, replaced with emotions no less intense. Nameless thoughts she couldn't understand, confused, broken, warped like the scar that speared down his face.

He was a wreck in every possible way, and so far removed from the tentative boy she'd reached out to that night in the hut on Ahch-To. The memory of that lonely, vulnerable boy contrasted with the haunted image before her now...

Her eyes stung, and she blinked quickly, trying to hide the evidence of her emotions.

The Force relaxed around them like an ocean after a storm, grey, windswept, and choppy but otherwise settled and almost gentle now.

"Rey," he panted in a soft voice, low and echoing within the empty chamber of their bond.

She straightened, feeling a pulse within her chest sprint to the ends of her fingers and toes.

"Let go," she demanded, voice steady.

His eyes regarded her calmly, almost disinterested. "No."

"You can't win."

"No?" He cocked his head to the side, considering her.

"No," she snapped.

His lips twitched, a hint of a smile. He began to circle her, and she matched his steps, never averting her gaze. They paced in slow gradual strides, mirroring each other. Rey had no fear of him here, despite the terrifying power he had shown holding them. She knew now they were too well matched. Two sides of the dark and light, equal and opposite to each other.

In some far distant reaches of her mind, she could hear the muffled sounds aboard the Falcon. Poe barking orders and Chewie's frustrated cries. She knew they were working hard to free themselves; all they needed was a break…

"So what is this then?" She gestured around them sharply. "Is the Force Bond open again?"

"I don't know. I thought you had closed it."

"I thought you had."

Silence again.

The muffled voices beyond the void of their bond rose and fell again in the back of her mind. A muscle feathered in Ben's jaw as his gaze fixated on her. She looked away for a moment, his grip on them was loosening.

When she returned to face him, the distance had closed between them. Rey blanched at the closeness of his approach. She could feel his breath as it skimmed the top of her head, running a shiver down her back. Here, she could count the freckles and moles on his face like they were constellations in the sky. She trailed her eyes along that faint scar running across his brow and down to his cheek. And finally, she met his eyes again, up close they were splashed with amber and tiny flecks of green against the earth-brown of his iris. They searched her face, drawing her in as they had done all those months ago. Rey felt a pulsing warmth in her core, radiating through her veins, as though a furnace had been lit within. The heat rushing through her veins like molten steel.

"You're in danger," he whispered.

She scoffed. "From you!"

"Yes." His pupils enlarged, devouring any colour in his eyes as he searched her again, taking in every detail of her.

Rey's lashes dropped before him, needing to break the intensity of his gaze. When she raised her head again, the expression on his face terrified her more than any battle between would have. The air around them was still and waiting and she realised, whether he did or not, his hold on them was gone.

A rumbling power resonated around the void, and Rey could feel the energy of the hyperdrive engine activating again. The Falcon...

" _Wait!_ " Ben reached out to her, but Rey was ripped from that quiet space. The darkness replaced by cool-white lights, and comfortable grime, as she found herself back on the Falcon.

When she ran to the cockpit, stars were streaming in silver lines along the windows.

They were free.

—-

Rey collapsed into Chewie's chair. Head-throbbing now from the pressure of their encounter.

A warm hand slid onto her shoulder, and she met Leia's hand with her own and held it, eyes fixed on the hypnotic appearance of space bending around them.

"I'm guessing you had something to do with that back there," Poe said.

"It was nothing," Rey replied with a hollow, trembling voice,

"It must have been something because, otherwise, Kylo Ren would be melting our brains by now."

"Thanks, Poe." Rey smiled. She sunk back into the chair wanting it to swallow her, fingers toying with the loose strands of brown fur dotted around the chair. She was exhausted now, at the end, her body felt weak and bruised like all the muscles had turned to Rodian jelly, and her heart hung heavy in her chest.

"General, do you mind? I'm really tired…"

"Of course, go and rest." Leia cradled Rey's hands in her aged ones. Rey tried to stop them from shaking but it was difficult as Leia's steady and insistent gaze burned on her. Rey couldn't face those eyes. She left solemnly, feeling the weight of their unasked questions as she left.

—-

Alone now, Rey slid down the door of her bunker, collapsing on the floor, her arms slumped over her knees.

How naive had she been rushing off to Snoke's ship thinking she could save Ben? And now he had tried to capture them all, to haul her aboard the Finalizer to be his captive like some depraved maniac.

Her chest heaved. She was furious at him in so many ways. Angry that he had tried to destroy them in a rage akin to a dangerous temper tantrum on Crait. Angry that his terrible choices should even come as a surprise to her. And, finally, angry for the hope he had given her that she wouldn't be alone in this. That she had found someone who understood what it was like to be utterly alone, to be different in ways others couldn't understand. She wiped her nose with her sleeve, surprised to find her cheeks wet and hot with tears.

"Rey?" A quiet voice came from outside her bunkroom, and Leia peeked her head from around the door.

Rey jumped and opened the door for her. "General Organa!"

"I wanted to thank you for what you did back there."

"Like I said, it was nothing."

Leia's thoughtful brown eyes scanned her. Rey felt them watching her, but she still couldn't look at her. Not while holding onto this secret.

"Rey, I may not understand the Force very well—Luke only taught me a very little..."

Rey nodded, her eyes fixed on the floor.

"But I can feel its gentle ebb and flow." She paused, clearing her throat. "I can feel when it is being manipulated..."

Rey waited as she watched Leia searching for words. She had never known the General to stumble on her sentences before.

"You need to be careful, Rey..."

"What do you mean?"

"Back there, Kylo Ren was seeking you. He didn't care about destroying us," Leia said. "But _you_ —his mind's eye was bent towards you."

Rey shivered and grabbed a blanket from her bunk. As she did, the broken lightsaber rolled out from beneath it, falling to the ground with a loud clunk. Shards of metal scattered across the floor. Rey pulled them together tenderly, pilling the broken pieces in her lap.

"With Luke gone now, I suppose I'm the only Jedi he has left to destroy," Rey said at last.

Leia leaned close to her, voice hushed. "Or he means to turn you..."

This time Rey could face her, there was no hesitation in her words, just resolved determination. "I will not join him, Leia."

"I know you won't." Leia sighed. Turning her face away from Rey.

Silence fell between them, and Rey noticed the General's shoulders trembling, ever so slightly, but enough to betray the emotions she worked so hard to hide. Rey swallowed, unsure what to do or say. After a long, awkward silence, Leia continued.

"The stupid thing is, I miss him. Even after everything, I still want him back..."

"Of course you do, he's your son."

Leia released a bitter laugh. "Yes, my son. My son who is about to destroy an the entire galaxy. How's that for perfect parenting?"

Rey squeezed her lips together testily. Ben had made his own choices. If anyone was to blame, it was him...and Snoke.

"Luke had hope in him, even in the end. But I… Ever since what happened to Han, I struggle to see it—all I see is Kylo Ren, twisted by hate and fear. There is nothing of my son in there."

"Ben is not lost, Leia."

"I wish that were true," she whispered.

"I believe it is." Rey's voice was soft and gentle.

Leia faced her again, gaping slightly. Her words hesitating. "Why did you call him Ben?"

"I meant Kylo Ren." Rey's face flushed with colour.

"I know what you meant," she replied, though her tone was ambiguous. "

Suddenly, the speaker crackled over their heads, and Poe's static voice announced: "General! We are about to approach Soriela now."

Leia stood, and for once, did not use her cane in the process. "I'd better go. Thank you for the chat, Rey."

"Soriela?"

"It's a special place," Leia whispered, her eyes far away. "A place my son would never destroy."

**** Thank you to my amazing Betas The Aberrant Writer Girl (also writing an amazing fic) u/6718977/The-Aberrant-Writer-Girl and Queen Black Bertha.****


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4. The Murderer and the Monster**

Part 1.

Kylo Ren watched helplessly as the vision of Rey faded. The darkness of the Force Bond melting into the sallow grey hue of the Finalizer's command deck. The vacuum-silence of the Bond dispersed by the bridge crew's quiet footfalls and hushed whispers.

He stood resolute atop the bridge tower, ignoring the many eyes that flickered up at him from the pit. The space beyond the trapezoid windows now replaced by the bleeding red and rust lines of Veros.

How much destruction had he seen standing by these windows? They allowed him a level of detached disinterest. He thought back to the destruction of the Hosnian system, watching those blazing missiles of light streaming through the heavens like spears of fire leading to the destruction of billions of lives. It hadn't affected him, or at least, that's what he had told himself.

 _Liar!_ The thought snapped at him like a serpent's bite.

And now he fed himself more lies.

He did not care Rey had left him again. She was nothing—merely a pawn on the board of war. She had gotten away this time, but…he took a steady, strained breath through gritted teeth. His hands curled into fists, leather gloves pulled taut across white knuckles. He marched forward towards the windows, shuddering at the lonely sound his boots made as they hit upon the floor.

His dark eyes scanned the control room.

 _She had abandoned him, rejected him, again._

The crew pointedly ignored him, backs turned, busy as though their lives depended on it.

All of them liars. He could feel their incredulous thoughts. Questioning him. Doubting him.

"What the hell was that?" The ferret-faced man marched before him, pointing to the empty space outside.

"General Hux." Kylo looked him over with feigned disinterest. _Of course_ , he thought. _They heard everything._

"You were speaking to her!" Hux hissed.

Kylo considered him with a sideways glance, noting his hollow cheeks and rat-like eyes. A thin mouth pulled tight with the slightest sneer curling on the edges of his lips. Hux was a weed, gangly, irritating, and left unchecked, dangerous.

Kylo tried to remember the broken words he had spoken to Rey in the Force Bond. Things that could be used against him. Things that Hux would certainly use. He narrowed his eyes on the general, and with a gentle wave of his hand, watched as the bright fox-like cunning seemed to seep away from Hux's eyes. Incriminating memories of what had past flushed from the general's mind. The rage was still there, however, hateful, seething rage always boiling below the surface of his mind.

He could handle the rage. The questions on the other hand...

"We have 3,000 turbo lasers on this ship. Why didn't we blast them when we had the chance," Hux asked. "They could be anywhere now!"

"You there!" Kylo pointed to an officer by the navigation controls. "Do you have any kind of trace on them?"

"Nothing, sir."

Kylo Ren's face was grave. Rage licked at his wounds. Hux was treading dangerous ground. The dark side of the Force sought relief. It surged from him, seeking power and domination. Hux regarded him without fear, walking past him with a quiet hiss only loud enough for Kylo to hear.

"This cannot go on. You need to pull yourself together, Ren. "

Kylo raised his hand. A promise of castigation and pain. The general stiffened, his eyes wide, breath loud and deep. They stared at each other in a silent, wordless exchange. The officers on the bridge shifted uncomfortably, and the air of the room tremored with warning.

Kylo lowered his hand, fixing his gaze towards the stars.

"Keep searching for them," he said calmly. "I'll be in my quarters."

By the time Kylo reached the turbolift, his resolute mask unravelled. The tension in his muscles unfolded and his body felt lead-heavy. He sighed deeply and leant back against the wall of the elevator, relieved to be alone, until a sharp beep sounded.

He stood tall as the elevator doors slid open, revealing a short stormtrooper staring back at him, hesitating whether to come in or wait. Kylo scowled and moved to the side, looking away from him. Eventually the stormtrooper entered and turned his back to the Supreme leader, head lowered as the doors sealed him inside.

Kylo stared blankly at the wall in front. Numbered lights flashed as the elevator travelled down the shaft. He furrowed his brow, replaying what had happened. The Force had connected them again, which meant the Bond was still active. He reeled at the thought of it, feeling his chest close into his heart. The last time he had seen her, she had pushed him away with a coldness that still left a chill in his heart. But what does this mean now? Would it continue to bring them together as it had done before. Perhaps he could even seek her out himself? He swallowed dryly at the prospect.

He had expected the anger he felt towards her these past months to spill out of him like a raging torrent, but the moment she appeared before him, those feelings had soothed into submission. Seeing her now had awakened something within him, and he found himself wanting. More than that... _starving_ …for her.

The fact that he had lost her again filled him with an emptiness that twisted his insides. His teeth clenched, and his breath came with jolted heaves. Simultaneously the elevator groaned loudly until it came to a shuddering halt. The lights failed and darkness consumed them. Kyo could hear the stormtrooper's, shallow, hurried breaths until the lift plunged like a falling rock. He reached out with the Force, steadying it until the they came to a sudden stop.

Kylo's knees buckled, and the stormtrooper let out a yelp and flung out his arms to regain some balance. The force was wound tight around him, almost suffocatingly thick. Had he really manipulated it just by his emotions? He tried to let go of it…to let go of her. The tension in the air relaxed as the lights flickered on again and the lift resumed.

 _93… 92...91..._

"Are you alright, sir?"

Kylo almost jumped out of his skin. He had forgotten the stormtrooper was even in here. "What?"

"I said are you alright, sir?" he asked again, but this time his voice faulted..

"Why do you ask me this?"

There was a long pause, and the trooper shifted from his heels to his toes, head bowed and gaze fixed upon a point on the floor. "You seem...troubled."

Kylo felt his anger simmering into something tactile again. He clenched his jaw, trying harder this time to keep his rage at bay, to show some control.

"I'm sorry—"

"What is your name?" Kylo demanded.

"HR1879."

"Report to reprogramming immediately."

"Yes, sir," the trooper answered, selecting a different floor.

The cart came to complete stop, and the doors slid open. The stormtrooper hesitated a moment before walking out.

Kylo watched him thoughtfully. _Failed programming, just like FN-2187_. He wondered how many of them might be out there, walking around, independent minds, escaping the prison of their programming. These troopers had been brainwashed from childhood and yet their minds were fighting against it. It was dangerous for him, for Hux, for the First Order.

The sound of the trooper's metal boots beating rhythmically against the steel grates triggered something in Kylo, and he stepped out into the corridor after him.

"What is your station?"

"I work in in the kitchen, sir."

Kylo stared at him in silence, his features tight in concentration.

"No reprogramming. Report to me from now on."

"Yes, sir."

Kylo Ren walked away, his black cloak billowing behind.

"It's HR, sir."

"What?"

"My friends call me HR."

Kylo glared at the stormtrooper. "I am not your friend."

He gave HR a sharp nod, indicating for him to leave and the man hastened away. Kylo watched him with fascination. The last time he had been shown anything but cold respect or fear was in the presence of Rey. But now this faceless stormtrooper, without position or rank, dared to address him. Whether it was through courage, ignorance or a fundamental flaw in his training, it did not matter. HR1879 was a glitch, one that could easily be fixed but left unchecked could prove far more useful.

 _isn't this chapter a little, you know, on the short side?_

Yeah. About that.  
I really wanted to meet my publishing deadline this week and give you a story  
but I'm still tidying up the end of this one, as result we have a chapter in two parts.  
Part 2 will be published on Thursday. Sorry to keep you waiting.

 **Thank You!**

I want to give credit to my two amazing beta readers who are helping me make this story into what it is.

The Aberrant Writer Girl who stays up into the wee hours with me working this into something mildly readable. She gives so much of her time and is an amazing author. Check out her work.

And to Queen Black Bertha for her guidance and the amazing quirky Star Wars words she gives me.

Lastly, if you want to come and chat, you will find me on Tumblr at Pathfinder.


	5. Chapter 5 - Light in the Darkness

On Soreilia, Rey stared pensively at the beach. From the large bay windows of her bedroom, the opaque curtains flapped in the cool ocean breeze. The house was empty and devoid of light, except for a small emergency candle flickering beside her. She let the darkness bathe her features, wishing she could disappear and fade into it—if only for a moment.

Outside she watched the long beachgrass quivering in the wind, flowing down the hillside. Leia, Poe, Rose and Finn sat huddled on the sand, chattering around a bonfire, buffeted by the ocean's breath.

The sea beyond reminded her of glass, turquoise and silver in the fading moonlight, cradling stars of bioluminescence tumbling in the breaking shore.

Leia had called it her secret hideaway. A place where Han and she used to run away to when the troubles of the galaxy loomed over them like a dark cloud. There were no roads, no cities and no war. Just quiet people, living quiet lives.

It was basic, nothing more than a wooden beach house, battered by winter storms and sea salt. But the rainwater tanks were full, gardens overgrown with food and _most_ things in working order.

To Rey, it was the most beautiful place she had ever seen,

 _And yet…_ seeing it from this house, in this room—

She shivered. Another gust of wind, bringing with it the light sounds of laughter from the beach—their laughter—the closest people she had to friends and family.

She should be with them. She _wanted_ to be with them. Anywhere but here, alone, with the spine-tingling feeling something—someone—was watching her. And yet she couldn't bring herself to join them: laughing, smiling—pretending.

The gentle hum of the generator started again and the bedroom light blinked, bathing the room with incandescent brightness. Chewie must have been fixing it again. Leia had warned them it might fail once or twice. _Or three times, or four times_ , Rey thought with a wry smile. The lights caught Finn's attention, and he waved at her to come and join them.

She waved back just as the power failed again. Rey sighed. She relaxed in the darkness, hidden away, obscuring the secrets she tried so desperately to keep.

She grabbed her torch and a handful of tools. Helping Chewie fix the generator would at least give her something to do. She might even try to beat him at a game of Dejarik while they worked.

On her way out, she passed the dusty wooden desk, topped with a small brass telescope, calligraphy quill and a stack of well-loved Starship comics. She glided her finger along the edge of the desk, letting the dust build up around it until she reached etched markings on the surface. Tracing her finger around the uneven edge, reading the childish script for the umpteenth time: _Property of Ben Solo, Jedi Master_.

 _The generator_ , she reminded herself. _But first_ … She peered about the room, half expecting Rose or Finn to burst in. Sure she was alone, she crept her fingers to the bottom drawer and pulled it open, removing a square velvet cloth covering a small frame. She held it up to the moonlight by the window, and with tremoring fingers, removed it from the pouch and studied the picture within.

It was a photo of Han and Leia with a small boy—a mischievous smile on his long, sun-kissed face. He was sitting atop his daddy's shoulders, holding onto Han's hair with one hand and a small toy spaceship in the other. _He had beautiful hair even then,_ she thought. Thick, wavy, covered with sand, and dripping with seawater.

"Why are you up here alone?"

Rey jumped at the sound. She searched the room until she saw the edges of a shimmer appearing, like a thin film of moonlight. The dull, blue glow manifested before her eyes into Luke's outline. An echo of the man she once knew and a vision of the Jedi Master she had imagined.

"You're haunting me now?"

"You knew I was trying to reach you."

"Yes. I could feel you in the Force. I think I even heard you the other day."

Luke came closer, settling beside her and joining her gaze on the horizon.

"I'll ask you again then, why are you alone?"

"I'm always alone." She turned away from him.

Rey sighed, voice cracking with sadness. "You were right. I thought I could turn him—I _saw_ him turn, Luke."

"We can't always trust our visions. We can manipulate them or misinterpret them. They are just pieces of an incomplete puzzle."

"So what am I supposed to do? What is my place in all this?"

Luke gave her a wry smile. "Haven't you already found it? You are the beacon of light of the Resistance. You are the hope that will rally the tired and oppressed."

Rey scowled at him, remembering how she had spoken those exact to him back on Ahch-To.

Luke returned the gesture with a sardonic smile. "Isn't that what the Resistance needs? You told me so yourself."

"Don't mock me." She walked away from him, from the light.

"What you want to know is how you can turn Ben Solo. Don't you?"

Rey froze in the darkness, her breath coming slow and unsteady.

"The answer is you can't, not in the way you want."

"So that's it then," she said with a hopeless sigh. "We wait for him to tear himself apart and the entire galaxy with it."

"Yes," he said in a solemn tone.

Rey returned to the window and stared at the midnight-blue beach. She felt a touch of mist on her hand, cool but empty, as Luke reached out and placed a luminous hand over hers.

"You must listen, Rey. Then the Force will guide you."

"I can't hear the Force." She pulled her hand away, folding her arms. "I try to do the things you showed me, I try to quiet my mind, but it's impossible. I can't stop thinking of Ben, the First Order, my friends, my parents," her voice drifted away into silence at the last word.

"What is your truth then?"

"My truth?" She gave a bitter laugh. "My truth is I've failed. The Resistance has lost. The First Order grows stronger every day. These past six months, we've been searching the galaxy far and wide for allies and funds, and for what? We have nothing to show for it. Everyone looks to me to make it right! But I have no idea how to help them."

She stopped, breathless. "The truth is I'm a liar. I've been lying to my friends about all of this, and when they find out, they will send me away."

She slumped against the window frame.

"Kylo Ren has won. I lost Ben Solo the moment I tried to take the lightsaber from him. He thinks I betrayed him, and he's right, I did! Luke, you want to know my truth? It's that I am, and will always be, _alone."_

Silence drifted over them as Rey wiped her eyes. Luke shook his head with a fatherly smile.

"And what's beneath it all, Rey? What's the quiet voice within your mind, the one that gave you strength to face every day on Jakku?"

Rey shook her head. "There's nothing else."

"Stop ignoring it, Rey! Search your feelings."

Rey closed her eyes and took a slow breath. She focussed on the Living Force around her and narrowed the thoughts within her own mind, seeking the truth that lay below all else. And then she felt it—just the slightest tremble in the Force—broken, angry, conflicted. _Ben._

"He needs help. He can't find a way out of this alone," she whispered, still and sullen. "But how can I—?"

"You need to open the bond again. Properly, this time."

"What does that even mean?"

"Last time the Force connected you at will. Find the path to Ben and you will always be able to go back to him."

"I'm not sure I even want that."

"Yes, you do."

Rey gaped at him, and the old Jedi Master looked back at her with a knowing smile. "Come, let me show you."

—

Legs crossed, hands on knees, Rey sat motionless by the open bay windows. The moon bathed her face in the cool light, as a fresh breeze blew wisps of hair around her, casting thin shadow webs dancing across the wall.

 _Breathe, just breathe._ Luke's voice spilled into her mind, soft like running water.

She took a slow, deep breath, and released it with tapered lips.

The Force pulled her, gentle, receding, like the tide.

 _Feel the force within you. Let it take you._

His voice floated around her, like the particles of dust tossed about in this musty room. He was one and part of the Force.

 _Come with me, Rey._

She felt her mind and body swept out into an ocean of stars. Only, they were not stars but beacons of light. Fire sparks spread throughout the galaxy.

"What are they?"

 _Those sensitive to the Force, always carry the light._

"There are so many of them."

She continued to float along through the empty night, passing a cluster of dimly lit stars, scattered diamonds in a sea of black. _Who are they?_ she wondered. _Their fire is dim and fading, and yet, they're so many of them in the one place._

"Can you see that?" she asked. But in answer, her body was further carried to a luminous spiral galaxy, and then towards a homing beacon in the Force—the brightest star in the galaxy.

 _Ben_ … Finding him was like walking home—a memory she never knew she had.

Rey hesitated, feeling a sickening chill seep through her body. She wasn't ready to see him, to look into those lost, dark eyes again. She tried to pull back against the tide, struggling hard against the current, but it was too strong.

"Luke! I'm not ready!" she cried out to the void, but he was gone, and when she blinked again, she knew where she was.

Cold, barren, black floors, grey walls, a table of ash, a battered mask... _Vader!_ She gasped. The walls were smoking, scarred with red lines and smouldering embers, streaking in a frenzied pattern of disorder. His lightsaber lay on the floor before it. Rey could feel the low hum of his kyber crystal. It was in pain, cracked and broken within the shell.

It wasn't only the wall, every piece of furniture not bolted to the floor lay in broken rubble. Rey felt a dreadful fear creeping up her spine. She shouldn't be here, he was the enemy, he was…

She froze at the sight of him, of Ben. He sat with his hands clenched into fists. Eyes staring emptily into the cold expanse of darkness beyond. He breathed unsteadily, fighting the waves of emotion threatening to strangle his will.

Rey took a step towards him, and his back straightened.

"He knows I'm here."

 _No. He feels a disturbance in the Force. He can't see or hear you._

She took another step closer.

Ben shifted again and searched the room, his breath catching.

For a long moment, Rey froze in place, watching with her heart pounding in her chest as his dark eyes tracked around the room. He even looked straight at her once. He said nothing, and Rey allowed herself to breathe again.

She crouched before him, unable to stop staring. _His face…_ She cringed to see it, so broken, so lost, so utterly alone. And yet, she couldn't look away.

"Why am I here?"

 _The Force has brought you here for a reason._

Barren furniture in a lifeless room. There was nothing here, except… The Force flickered around her, the light manifesting and pulsing with every breath she took. But Ben's existence was like a black hole, spiralling into his heart. Offshoots of grey shadow tore around him, broken with veins of red fire.

"The darkness is all around him, he draws it into himself," Rey whispered, feeling the conflicted variations of the Force twisting this way and that. "There's something else…"

She felt it drawing her to the centre of that black hole, into the dark side of the Force. She reached out for Luke to help guide her when something flashed, light, hidden deep within the folds of darkness.

Rey stretched out her hand towards him, searching…

It was instantaneous. Ben's thoughts filtered into her own, forging and merging. His thoughts crashed around her as if standing in a squall.

She saw crimson drapes and gold upon a throne. She was looking through Ben's eyes, hearing through his ears, feeling his emotions.

Rey choked, feeling overwhelmed. She swallowed, took a deep breath, and opened her eyes to see...

 _Snoke! His wretched wasting body, curling fingers, soothing cheeks, long-nailed fingers wiping tears away. Those cruel words. Lies snaking around Ben's neck, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing. He will never let him go. He will never be free. The mighty Kylo Ren, heir apparent to Lord Vader. Fulfil your destiny. Weak. Worthless. You are nothing. You failed!_

 _The tide shifts, and she sees the face of Han Solo. Han holds his hand up to her face. There is love in his eyes… and hope. His fingers are gentle, the first fleeting feeling of softness against his unmasked face. Ben's stone heart breaking at the touch. He must not fail… God, how long had he wanted someone to touch him, to love him, to understand?… It is a spring of hope. Courage builds in his heart, a distant echo, his voice rises: Maybe he could escape? Maybe he could go back and things would be the way they were?_

 _The blazing sunlight behind Starkiller base shines on him, giving light to his courage. He removes his lightsaber. "Take it," he wills Han. Take it before… The light is falling, and Snoke's twisted words tear at his soul. Darkness tightens around him until he can't breathe. Snoke is watching. He knows. He cannot hide from him. "Fulfil your destiny," he hisses. Han's face twists in pain and shock._

 _Ben's soul is ripped apart._

 _He hears the distant scream of a girl—the girl. It is_ her _._

 _Fire burns apart the vision, the world is ending._

 _She is with the traitor. She looks at Ben with hate in her eyes, seeing him for the monster he is. Kylo Ren's fate is sealed. He has done the unthinkable. His soul cracks, like the tired crust of a planet, ripped apart by earthquakes. Like Starkiller base destroying itself from within._

 _He must not lose her. He must find her again._

 _Snoke wants her._

 _He_ _wants her…_

 _He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know what to do!_

Rey pulled her mind back from his, panting. Ben's eyes stared past her into the emptiness. She felt his emotions, a raging rapid sucking everything into its flow. His pain was so overwhelming, she couldn't breathe it weighed so heavily on her.

"Oh, Ben," she whispered, tears filling her eyes as she reached her hand out to him. She wanted to touch his face, pull it close to her breast and wrap her arms around him. But he didn't respond, eyes still staring, blank and lost, a soul trapped in purgatory.

The Force shifted around them both, and she saw it again. _The Light._ It called to her. Burning brightly, buried and waiting. It had always been there...

 _What can you feel?_

Rey startled at the sound of Luke's voice in her head. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she pushed into Ben's mind.

"I… I don't know what it is." Rey squinted, searching harder. His mind was closing to her.

 _Find it!_ Luke urged

She forced her way through. Pushing past the barriers he tried so desperately to build.

"Light. Compassion." Rey's fingers touched her lips as her heart thundered in her chest. With one last reach, something snapped. Answers flowed before her, pulled from where he had hidden them away.

He had protected it fiercely—a secret so big it would destroy him should his enemies discover it. But when the tension broke, she saw _everything_.

Rey stumbled backwards, blushing with shame at the intrusion she had made. She had touched something that did not belong to her. Not yet.

 _Say it! Who does he have compassion for?_

"For me." Rey stared at Luke with wide eyes, panting. "He has compassion for me. He…"

She cannot finish the words. The truth. It was too soon, too raw, too much.

Rey turned her face towards the shadows, hiding the tears falling from her eyes, the trembling in her fingers, the flowing fire on her skin.

In a fleeting moment, she saw through the looking-glass of her soul but through his eyes this time: her abandonment, her betrayal. Ben understood her pain. He had felt her loneliness, lived it. His heart had broken for her.

She was not alone. She would _never_ be alone…

So many of his emotions tied to her, she couldn't even find the words to express them. She was the thought that clung to the light, the light he protected from the darkness. He… She can't face the thought, what she saw, what he had felt.

"Why did you show me this?" Rey said, trying to fight tears streaming down her face. _How could he feel this for her?_ _She was nothing, she was nobody. He told her she was nothing —_ " _but not to me"._

Something snapped. The air in the room changed. Rey stepped backwards, her heart racing. Something was waking—rage and fire. The room trembled and quaked as light bulbs burst overhead, shattering in sands of glass.

Ben's eyes snapped open, and Rey only saw hate and fire in them.

"Snoke!" the word dripped from him like blood.

She froze, a burgeoning understanding she had trespassed into the quiet secrets of his mind, and she had no right to be there.

Ben rose, a formidable tower of black, rage frothing around him.

"Get out!" his voice was like winter, shredding her with sharpened barbs of ice.

 _She needed to break the connection_.

"Luke!" she cried out, but he had vanished.

Rey felt black-gloved fingers close around her wrist as her body jolted forward towards him.

"What are you doing here? Get out!"

She yanked her hand away, stumbling backwards onto the floor in shock.

Ben charged towards her, and she grabbed for the only weapon she could see—his lightsaber. As soon as her fingers wrapped around the base, it tore away from her hand, speering through the air to its master with terrifying speed.

"Get out!" he bellowed and this time the flame of fire roared to life, spitting and frothing as a rabid beast.

"Kriff!" Rey hissed, as she felt around the floor for her staff. _It must still be here_. She's still in her bedroom if only she can…

 _Got it!_ She jumped to her feet, ready to fight. Like wildfire, he charged towards her once more. She backed away. There was no reason in his eyes. Only darkness.

He was before her now, blade overhead. It came down on her. She rolled away.

He struck again, slashing it downwards, but this time, Rey countered. She forced her metal staff in front of him to block the blow and watched in horror as metallic sparks sizzled through her weapon.

"Ben!" she screamed, half in panic, half in anger, falling backwards against invisible furniture. The staff had cleaved in two. _Her_ staff. The staff she had spent months creating and perfecting in the lonely desert nights of Jakku. The one that had saved her life more times than she could count. It had seen her through the most difficult roads of her life.

All of it, destroyed it in one angry sweep.

He _knew_ what destroying it would mean to her.

The light of his blade disappeared and as it clunked to his side. The action awakened him from his trance, and Rey sensed the smoke filter away from his gaze.

For the first time, he saw her. Lips trembling, blinking at her in confusion.

 _"You_ were the one in my head." His voice was quiet, quivering, but not gentle.

Rey's lips tightened into a thin line. The timber floor was beneath her, the distant moonlight falling on her face. She was slipping away.

She wasn't ready yet. She wanted to face him. To fight him for what he had done. He must have realised too because he darted forward to reach out to her, but she was fading too fast.

"We're not finished yet," he said venomously.

"No, we're not!"

The Force pulled her back, separating them.

She tried one last time to lunge at him. She made contact. Her head cracked against something hard as a blinding pain shot from her forehead and behind her eyes.

"Kriff! Ouch. Rey! What the hell are you thinking!?"

She fell back, rubbing her head, trying to hide the tears of pain forming in the corners of her eyes.

A blurry face came into focus as she saw black flicks of hair and a straight fringe bordering a young and innocent face with sharp perceptive eyes.

"Rose! I didn't… I mean…" She had no words. "Sorry. I didn't see you there."

Rose glowered at her, rubbing her temples in smooth, circulating strokes.

"I'm sorry," Rey said again, "I…"

"It's okay. It was an accident. What were you doing anyway?"

Rey shrugged, rubbing the sweat from her temples. If Rose thought her behaviour strange, she wasn't giving it away.

"Come down to the beach with us! We're having such a great laugh. Oh my gosh, Finn…" Rose stopped, her eyes going distant and dreamy as a little laugh slipped from her lips. Until suddenly, she stopped and frowned, puzzled. "Rey?"

"What?" Rey replied, an octave higher than intended.

"What happened to your staff?"

 **Thank You!**

I want to give credit to my amazing beta reader who is helping me make this story into what it is.

The Aberrant Writer Girl who stays up into the wee hours with me working this into something mildly readable. She gives so much of her time and is an amazing author. Check out her work.

Lastly, if you want to come and chat, you will find me on Tumblr at Pathfinder.


	6. Chapter 6 - Moving Pieces

Moving Pieces

 _Shadows beneath the door, two black shapes eclipsing the light beyond. Rey froze, waiting, watching. He wouldn't come in, he wouldn't come in, he wouldn't… the door cracked open, just enough, a thin sliver of light cut a line across her body. A whisper, tentative and soft, "Rey?"_

Rey rolled onto her stomach. The distant sound of seabirds filtered into her dreams as a touch of cool air kissed her arms. Her hand slid over the pillow, searching…

 _The satin bed sheets were twisted and tossed. Her fingers glided along the soft fabric, tracing the outline of tenuous muscles below alabaster skin. They rolled beneath her fingers like a cresting wave. Panting breaths pressed warmly against her neck. "Stay." Her arms wrapped around him but even now he slipped away as the night disappears into day. "Please, stay."_

 _But it was no use, she could not keep him there. He was not hers to keep._

"Wait!" Rey woke with a start, eyelashes laced with tears.

The bedroom was empty. Sunlight streamed through the bay windows, flashing blindly in her eyes. She rolled with a grimace, pulling the blanket up over her shoulders as though it might keep the morning away.

 _What had she been dreaming?_ On Jakku, her dreams were vivid and captivating: white-water waves crashing against craggy shores, rain-swept hills and ancient-stone huts. _Ahch-To_ , she mused. But she no longer dreamt of the island now, that peaceful place replaced with fire and ash and pain… Rey tried to remember, but even as she did the visions floated away…

Except that last one.

That was like a branded mark burnt into her waking mind. She wouldn't think of that now...

Rey yawned. Last night after the… _incident_ , she had stayed awake, studying to the sound of Rose's soft snores. With ancient Jedi texts spread over her bed, she scoured over diagrams of lightsabers and kyber crystals. She had spent most of the night trying to fuse two broken pieces of crystal together, while connecting the wires to form a stable current. It hadn't worked. Not even close.

She worked for hours, amidst the flickering candlelight splashing on the walls. Until, at last, the wick crackled and fizzed leaving her alone in the dark with nothing to do but think _._

"Breakfast is ready!" Rose's cheerful voice wafted in from the kitchen.

"Coming!" she shouted back.

 _Rose_. She would have to face her now. Sweet Rose, who had tried not to ask questions when she found Rey on the floor in their room. Rose had just smiled and helped her to her feet.

Rey slipped on her clothes, got out of bed and walked along the hall until she came to the kitchen door. She would have walked in but the hushed voices inside made her hesitate.

Rose spoke: "I don't know, Leia, like I said, she was on the ground and her staff was broken in two pieces."

"Could you see what she was looking at?" Leia asked.

"No. There was nothing there. I'm sure of it."

 _Oh God_ , Rey groaned. It was now or never. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and knocked on the door.

* * *

"Come in."

The door to Kylo Ren's chambers slid open to reveal a single trooper, dressed in polished armour and standing at attention. The men stared at each other for a long moment, HR hesitating, shuffling his feet as though he couldn't decide whether to enter.

"You asked me to be here at 18:00, Supreme Leader."

Kylo jerked his head up, indicating for the man to come forward. He obeyed, white plastoid boots clunking on the polished floor with slow, awkward steps. Kylo reordered a pile of reports strewn across his desk. He did not look up even as HR waited for his attention.

"Helmet," he said curtly.

HR unclipped his mask and lifted it, revealing a dark-skinned man with thick angled-eyebrows and short-trimmed hair. Despite grooming regulations, he had a small goatee growing in the shape of a teardrop beneath his bottom lip. Kylo wondered how he'd gotten away with that last detail.

 _Defiant_ , he thought, _or_ _incredibly stupid. Probably both_.

HR looked towards Kylo, but not at him. His eyes shifted nervously around the room until they rested on the broken wall of his bedroom. The trooper's forehead creased and his Adam's apple slid slowly down his neck at the sight of the burnt gashes. But, to his credit, he did not turn aside from the obvious destruction, or his leader.

Kylo Ren sized him up with a sharp, thoughtful glare.

"You missed a spot," he said, pointing to his chin.

"Yes, sir." HR touched his goatee self-consciously. "Won't happen again, sir."

Kylo turned away. Pacing with purposeful silence, stopping at last by his desk and tapping his fingers on his holopad. "How many are there?"

"How many what, Supreme Leader?"

"How many stormtroopers are like you?"

HR averted his gaze, a rash of red creeping above the neckline of his armour. "I don't understand what you mean, sir."

"Yes, you do."

HR said nothing, but a sheen of sweat formed over his forehead. Kylo stepped into his space, looking down on him with intimidating silence.

" _Failed programming_ if you need me to spell it out for you," he snapped. "Now, how many?"

The trooper swallowed, flicking his dark brown eyes to Kylo again before lowering them and muttering, "A few."

"A few?"

"Maybe..." HR stammered. "Maybe more than a few."

Kylo sucked in a terse breath through clenched teeth. "I want numbers, HR."

The stormtrooper looked up with a surprised expression at the use of his name. "No less than two to three hundred."

Kylo paused. "Does General Hux know about this?"

"He knows something has gone wrong. Every week they send more of us for reprogramming. Some don't even come back."

"And what do your fellow stormtroopers think about that?" Kylo asked with an edge of menacing mirth in his voice.

Silence.

"Answer m—"

"They don't like it," HR's words rushed out, eyes pinned to the ground.

Kylo brought his gloved hand to his chin and stroked it thoughtfully: Two to three hundred troopers on this ship alone, independent soldiers fighting against their programming.

This wasn't a bug in the system; it was an epidemic.

FN-2187 had only been the beginning. _The Traitor._ Memories of Jakku swept over him: the hot desert wind churning with embers and ash, the stink of charred flesh and burning straw filled his senses. The villagers rounded up, begging and pleading, some on their knees, others weeping. _Kill them all,_ he had ordered. The air around him erupted in a light show of lasers, narrated by dying screams. He watched the settlement of Tuanul burn. Watched and felt nothing. Confident in the dark side of Force, comfortable in its power and absolute nature... But then the Force had shifted beside him with fear, hesitation, refusal. He had turned to FN-2187. The stormtrooper would betray them; he could see it in his mind. He hadn't fired a single shot, and they both knew it. He should have killed him right there where he stood. She had called him _Finn._ He almost spat with bitterness at the recollection of her lips speaking his name with such concern... Kylo centred his thoughts, moving them away from Rey.

FN-2187 was one traitor whose betrayal had been the tipping point of everything. What might a whole squadron do when the fire of resistance burned within them?

"If you'll excuse me, Supreme Leader." HR's nervous voice brought Kylo back into the present. "Can I ask what you plan to do—?"

Kylo returned to his desk. "You're dismissed."

"But—"

"Report here, same time tomorrow." He sat down and resumed going through his pile of documents filed neatly in front of him.

"I need to know, sir." HR's voice was loud but high and unsteady. "What will you do—"

"You forget your place—"

"My friends are being tortured. Their minds broken," the words poured out of him now, with a strong accent Kylo didn't recognise. "Those who remember anything before the Order are taken away first..."

Kylo raised his hand with a dark expression but hesitated. _The ones who remembered?_ _Interesting..._

"I know I'm speaking out of turn and you're probably gonna kill me for it. But if I don't speak now, I might not get another chance."

HR's jaws locked shut; he struggled to talk but his lips remained sealed.

Kylo Ren stood again, arm outstretched, holding the trooper in place with the Force.

" _You_ are my subordinate. I am your Supreme Leader. You and all your men belong to me," Kylo hissed the words at him. But still, he shuddered. These were Snoke's words not his, and they tasted like poison in his mouth, making him choke. "You're dismissed until tomorrow—"

He released his hold over the stormtrooper, relief filling HR's face as he regained movement in his jaw.

"But—"

"Nothing," Kylo answered, sitting down once more. "I'll do nothing. Now leave my room."

HR gaped at him as Kylo resumed the monotonous task of reviewing reports. HR put on his helmet, raising a salute, and backed away.

As soon as he heard the door slide closed, Kylo slumped in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair with a loud groan. HR had a death wish—that much was clear. Months ago, he would have choked the life out of him for such insolence, and even now he questioned why he'd let him get away with it.

But something was changing here, something important. Hux failed. The ginger-haired rat had boasted to Snoke how he'd developed the most obedient and highly trained soldiers in the galaxy.

And yet here they were—falling apart around him.

HR said they were remembering their past. That meant they were coming into the Order at an age old enough to even have memories. Stormtroopers should be trained from birth but clearly that was no longer the case. Hux had gotten impatient. He was cutting corners, and that would be his downfall.

But Kylo Ren was sure of one thing. The moment his back was turned Hux would strike. But for once Kylo was planning ahead too. He wouldn't kill him yet, despite his snivelling, irritating, conniving ways, the General had helped to secure the might and stability of the First Order. But that wouldn't always be the case.

His men were finding their individualism, forming friendships, supporting one another.

What's more, they were beginning to understand what had been taken from them—and that was dangerous.

Kylo may have loathed his family but at least those memories were his own.

If he had the inclination, he could have remembered his mother, watching over him on Soreilia as he played on the beach. The way she waited for him on the sand, towel outstretched and ready to wrap him in it with a tight embrace.

He could go back to that blusterous day he rode atop Han's shoulders, playing with his most treasured possession, a miniature Millennium Falcon that Han had made for him on his sixth birthday.

It was in his power to think of the places and people that had once brought him happiness and comfort.

Kylo wondered what HR remembered of his life. Whatever it was, he wouldn't be the one to take that away from him.

He wouldn't take it away from any of them.

* * *

Rey opened the door to the kitchen with a strong shove. It had swollen over the years and jarred each time anyone closed it. Rose and Leia sat on a narrow bench stretching out along the window. Leia had shaggy brown shawl draped around her shoulders with a steaming mug of caff cradled in her palms. Beside her sat Rose, still wearing her dressing gown.

They startled as Rey came in, whether or not they meant to.

"Morning!" Rey said in a sing-song tone, flashing a smile so broad it made her cheeks ache.

"You're up! I thought you wouldn't get up for hours," Rose replied. "It looked like you were up all night."

"Mmm." Rey removed the lid from a simmering pot on the cooker. "I have no idea what that is, but it smells delicious."

"It's Poe's creation." Leia offered her a bowl. "A mix of oats and milk, topped with cinnamon, nuts and enough sugar to rot your teeth."

"Milk?" Rey glanced at it wrinkling her nose. It had taken her a long time to get over the fact that people outside of Jakku drank animal milk. The idea still made her queasy and reminded her of the first time she had seen Luke drinking it on Ahch-To: pale green fluid dripping down his beard. It had disgusted her then, and she had never fully gotten over the image.

"Oh, try it! Trust me, you will love it," declared Rose with a full mouth.

Rey spooned the oats into a bowl and sat down in the space beside Leia. Outside the window, Rey watched the grey gulls buffeting against a blustering Southerly wind. She wanted to be out there, feeling the cool moist breeze against her skin, the foam wash of waves crashing against shins. Yesterday, the ocean was tranquil and inviting, but now it was a tempest. Rey loved it in any capacity.

She ate, revelling in the warmth it brought her and closed her eyes for a moment listening to the howling wind gusting in high-pitched moans against the shutters.

"It really is so beautiful, Leia," she said watching the waves. "I can understand why you and Han wanted to escape here. I think I could stay forever"

Leia smiled, lips lined with age. Her dark eyes far away and soft as she looked beyond the horizon.

"We made a lot of good memories here. Han and I came to Soreilia whenever we needed to get away from politics."

"I bet you did," Rose said cheekily.

"Do you know he used to…" She stopped, her eye settling past that line ocean once more. Rose and Rey exchanged worried glances, wondering what to say to fill the awkward quiet between them, but Leia laughed softly, a wide smile taking years off her life.

"A good spot for a romantic getaway then?" Rose added.

"Indeed." Leia nodded, the youthful grin unable to be wiped clean. "It certainly was."

Rose winked at Rey, and they each smiled to the other.

"And then Ben came along… oh, he loved it here. He'd spend hours out in the sun, being tossed about in the waves. He wouldn't come back until sundown, red as a lobster, crazy-haired, covered in sand with the biggest grin on his face. I used to wrap him up in a towel and scold him for getting burnt, but he would just hug me so tightly—-I could never stay mad at him for long…"

Leia's voice cracked and fell into silence, sucking her joy away with it. Rose edged back from the overarching silence between them, searching for a topic of conversation.

In the still quiet, Rey slipped her hand beneath the bench and squeezed Leia's hand in hers, a gesture of understanding they both shared in the silence.

Suddenly, the kitchen door jolted open again and this time Poe burst in, puffing as though he'd run a mile.

"We've got one!" he shouted, waving his transceiver in the air. "My contact at the Black Spire Outpost will trade us for it."

"Batuu? Are you sure?" Leia narrowed her gaze at him. "That's not a very reputable place, especially for a deal like this."

"If it gets us a Severing Stone, that's all that matters," he said bullishly.

Leia's expression was severe enough not to need words but it wasn't quite enough to dissuade Poe.

"He guarantees me it's the real deal," Poe said, leaning his hands on Leia's shoulders.

"Oh he _guarantees_ it, Leia," Rey added with a teasing smirk.

"I wouldn't be saying anything just yet, Rey." Poe gave her a disarming smile which made her uneasy. "Look, it _is_ a risk. I get that. I do. But this might be the only way we take out the First Order."

Leia shot Poe a shrewd look, but he knelt down beside her, eyes frank and honest. "Like I told you earlier, it's for defence only. It's the only thing that can stop him."

"Not the only thing," she added softly, her eyes darting quickly to Rey and back to him. "But okay, Poe. You and Finn take the Falcon to check it out."

"Huh, yeah, okay," Poe replied absently, but then he looked at Rey, focusing on her like a target. Rey returned his stare with raised eyebrows.

" _Actually_ , Leia… I thought Rey and I could take this one."

A blush of colour tinged Rey's cheeks and grew as Leia looked back and forth between them searchingly. After a lengthy silence, Leia folded her arms and swallowed another sip of caff, which, judging from her face, tasted sour as a lemon.

"I don't know," she said, stretching the words out slowly. "I don't want another incident like Del Poa…"

" _That_ won't happen again," Rey felt compelled to say.

"Come on, Leia!" Poe said, standing up with the impatience of a child who'd been denied a toy. "We'll be careful. Go there, make the trade, get out again—unless of course, you'd miss me too much?"

Poe flashed his charming smile yet again, and Leia cracked. "Fine, but take Chewie with you."

"Chewie!" Poe roared, causing everyone to jump around them. "Fire up the Falcon."

"Can I at least have my breakfast first?" Rey asked with exasperation.

"Fine." Poe rolled his eyes. "I'll fill you in on the details later, Leia—oh, and Rey?"

"Yeah?"

"I guess that's a date then!" Poe winked at her and left, hollering for Finn on his way out.

The three women resumed breakfast, an awkward silence falling between them. Rey didn't feel so hungry anymore and even though both Rose and Leia avoided looking at her, she felt like they were, deep down.

After a strained silence Leia said, "You've got your hands full there."

"Oh, don't even say it," Rey groaned, but Rose only laughed at her.

"She sure does Leia! Not a bad thing to have your hands full of though,".

"Indeed," Leia replied and all three of them burst into laughter, for one moment forgetting about the war looming on their doorstep.

* * *

Leia spent the morning working through Poe's plan, ensuring they had the funds for the trip and giving him a few stern warnings regarding Rey. It wasn't necessary. Rey was a grown woman who'd more than once proved her mettle.

But still, Leia strode along the corridor to her son's old room; she felt an overbearing desire to protect her like a daughter. Han had felt it too before he died. After coming back from Takodana, he'd spoken to Leia with such tender admiration and almost fatherly pride about the girl. It had surprised her at first. Han had trained many young cadets in his time, but he'd always maintained a level of professional distance. Fondness without investment.

That had not been the case with Rey. He'd even offered her a job, something she never would have believed if he hadn't told her.

But now she understood. There was _something_ about the girl. Perhaps if she could reach out to her as a mother or a friend… Leia arrived at Rey's door, the familiar wave of dread and remorse overwhelming her whenever she approached this room. It washed over her, a purposeful pain. One that needed to be felt before she had any chance to heal.

The door was ajar, and Leia peered inside. Rey was busy packing her meagre possessions. Leia tapped against the door and waited.

"Leia. Come in." Rey smiled graciously, exposing two dimples on her cheeks.

Leia smiled back tightly and shuffled in, her grey dress robes sweeping the floor as she walked. Rey bundled up the shattered pieces of Luke's lightsaber into a travelling cloth, holding it as though it were the most valuable thing she owned.

"How are you going with it?" Leia indicated her head towards the laser sword.

"Not good. I've been trying to follow diagrams in these journals but… I don't know. I must be missing something because I'm not close to fixing it. I can't even read the writing."

"There's few who can," she mused, choosing one of the archaic texts and flipping through its pages absently. "C-3PO arrives in a few days with Lieutenant Connix, he may help you with the more recent texts. But the older books. I think Ben is the only one who could read those for you."

Rey froze.

Leia's reference to Ben had come naturally, but it was not without purpose. She went on to pack her things, averting her eyes. Leia watched her intently as Rey continued to pack distractedly, grabbing a water bottle, a large shawl, and the staff.

 _Her staff_ , Leia thought. _It really was cut in two._ Rey rushed to pick it up picked it up hurriedly, momentarily forgetting it was no longer in one piece, one half of it crashing to the floor with a reverberating crash.

"Rose mentioned it broke, but she didn't say how it happened?"

Rey shrugged her shoulders, placing it back on the bed to remain behind. "I don't even know myself. It just broke while I was training yesterday."

Rey flashed her a brief glance out of the corner of her eye as she continued to pack but said nothing further. "Well, I guess I'm ready to go then…"

"I'll see you on your way out." Leia placed an affectionate grip on Rey's arm, ignoring the momentary hesitation at the touch of her hand. "Anyway, there's something I've wanted to talk to you about for a while now."

Rey exhaled with an uneasy smile, and even though she walked beside her, she seemed still... waiting.

"There's no delicate way to say this, so I'll just come out with it. Han told me how my so…" Leia stopped and added the next words pointedly. " _Kylo Ren_ abducted you on Takodana."

Rey nodded as they went out the front door of the house, the blustering wind striking against them both, carrying with ot the taste of sea salt in the air.

"He carried you in his arms?"

"I wouldn't know," Rey mumbled. "I was unconscious."

They tramped along the garden path now, towards the landing area where the Falcon waited. Time was running out.

Leia took a deep breath, wringing her hands. Her next question caught in her throat. It was painful to talk about but it had bothered her ever since their encounter with the Finalizer at Veros.

There were times, fleeting as they were, that Leia could sense Ben, and Veros had been one of those occasions. And while Rey worked to push Kylo Ren back with the Force, Leia focussed on her son and was astonished by what she discovered there.

Despite the resentment and rage that tore around Kylo, his focus was targeted and persistent, like a shark circling in still and murky waters.

When Leia last saw Ben, he was but a boy with slender limbs and an awkward gait. Those years of boyhood were long gone.

He had tracked them, the Falcon, _Rey_ … but not as an enemy. His Force presence had been more wanting and burning than that, desperation rather than revenge.

And then she had sensed Rey beside him, formidable and just as determined to keep him out as he was to come in. It took Leia some time to understand the familiarity of the exchange but over the last few days, she recognised it at last.

Their battle had felt like a lover's quarrel, fierce and furious, neither of them wanting to give in to the other. Leia knew those battles well, Han and she had been masters of them.

Rey looked up at her, waiting for her to speak.

"I hope…" Leia stumbled, trying to find the words. "He didn't… hurt you?"

"Hurt me?" Rey looked puzzled. Leia held her breath dreading the answer.

"Leia he wouldn't…" the words rushed out of Rey's mouth before she was quite ready for them.

Leia cocked her head to the side thoughtfully.

"I mean… I don't think he does that sort of thing to people, do you?"

"No, Ben would never…" Leia said decisively. "I suppose I just worry about you…"

"Thank you. No one, well, apart from Finn, has ever worried about me before. But you don't need to Leia."

They stopped now at the edge of the Falcon, watching as BB-8 rolled along behind Chewie. Rey turned back to Leia and draped her arms around her with a tight squeeze.

"We'll be back soon, without a scratch on us. I promise."

Rey gave her a girlish wave, those two dimples flashing with her smile once more, and then ran up the ramp to where Chewie sealed the door.

The Falcon's sublight engines lit up, and with a resounding boom, the ship slowly raised above her and then shot out of sight.

Leia stood alone, windswept and staring at the grey clouds chasing and vanishing in the atmosphere. She searched about her, to the wooden house stained with age on a precipice looking over the sea, the overgrown pathways and forested hills. Her past and present.

In the waning light, she allowed her mind to wander. To a series of thoughts she had one buried deep in her heart… There _was_ something between them. Something dynamic and raw, and far more nuanced than being enemies on different sides of a war.

She shook her head, smiling. It was foolishness, all of it. She must have been going mad under the pressure of the past few months. And yet, she could not shake the feeling there was more between them than Rey let on.

As a young boy, Ben loved with fervour. He was a child enslaved to his passions, incapable of containing them. They filled him whole, whether it was with anger, or despair, or love.

Snoke had manipulated that part of him. Feeding him lies and poison. Pushing out his light and hope until there was nothing left but torment and twisted ideals.

Yes, he had claimed Kylo Ren, and there was nothing she could do to reverse that. But, deep down, she dared to hope… Perhaps Rey had found her son somewhere beneath the folds of darkness and shadow.

 **Thank You for Reading!**

I want to give credit to my amazing beta reader who is helping me make this story into what it is.

The Aberrant Writer Girl who stays up into the wee hours with me working this into something mildly readable. She gives so much of her time and is an amazing author. Check out her work.

Lastly, if you want to come and chat, you will find me on Tumblr at Pathfinder.


	7. Chapter 7

Kylo Ren stared at his evening meal. Yalvik queen stinger, Corellian flatbread and a side dish of Mandalorian soup. Delicacies from across the Galaxy. He poked at it with his fork, the muffled tapping and scraping of his cutlery against the metal plate, echoing in the silent void around him.

Ever since becoming Supreme Leader, Kylo had dined alone by choice.

 _Hux was…_ He skewered the stinger with his knife. _That snivelling ferret_. He wouldn't let Hux within a parsec of his food.

He could have joined the high-ranking officers in the dining hall but they were so unnerved by his presence they barely ate.

It was better this way. Alone.

He sipped a small crystal glass of port, letting the alcohol spread warmth in his chest and relax his senses. His eyes roamed around his chambers, trailing over the dulcet grey tones of the walls, to the hollow black steel of the floor. There was no life here, no colour, no light.

He had not minded it … until now.

The room flashed green as the holo-screen flickered to life.

His heart stopped. A notification. They were moving. _She_ was moving.

He watched as a white dot tracked across the screen, staring at it with enraptured attention, forgetting the bite of food in his mouth.

 _Where was she going?_ he thought, calculating the possible trajectories.

 _Could he connect the Force Bond? Should he?_

He had tried to open it just once from his end. Just to see her once, a fleeting glimpse that would have been enough to satiate him.

He had gotten so close—standing alone on the observation deck, eyes closed, reaching across the stars. It only took a moment for the air to tighten around him, the soft burn of sunlight on his skin and the fresh scent of misted sea salt filling his lungs.

Rey was nowhere to be seen.

He had felt her, but she always alluded him and he hadn't found the courage to seek her again. Not after what had happened last time.

The buzzer by his door beeped, and Kylo checked the time. _Right on schedule_.

The door slid open with a hiss, and HR entered, a bundle of raw nervous energy vibrating in the surrounding Force.

"Supreme Leader." HR snapped his hand to attention, a sharp confident motion. A lie. Kylo could sense his emotions— _hesitation, doubt, terror_.

"Take your helmet off when you address me," Kylo commanded, lowering the timbre of his voice into something threatening and full of menace.

HR hesitated, and Kylo slammed his cutlery onto his desk with a loud crash. "I gave you a command."

HR fumbled as he unclipped the fastening of his armour, holding it at his side as Kylo regarded him. HR's face was unchecked and open, unable to conceal his true feelings. That was something Kylo appreciated. It was so much easier to hide behind a mask.

HR stood at attention with a light coat of sweat at his temple, dark eyes wide and imploring and that blasted goatee, still there—his mark. His rebellion against conformity. Against Hux. Against _him._

"Are you incapable of working a razor, HR?"

"No, sir."

"Do you have some kind of impairment that makes you unable to complete a simple task of self-grooming?"

"No, sir. Consider it gone."

"See that it is," Kylo snapped. He should threaten him. Punish him for his insolence… but he wasn't finished with him yet.

"You have to admit though," HR rubbed at the spot with his index finger, a disarming smile creeping onto his long face. "It looks pretty sharp."

"HR…" Kylo glared at him and the living Force around the room became taut and strained but despite this, the stormtrooper smiled.

"Actually, Supreme Leader. I have a new name now."

Kylo choked, breathing in the flatbread he was halfway through eating. "You what?"

"A new name. A few of the guys from the HR designation started calling themselves HR too. So I had to think of something else…"

Kylo waited but HR volunteered no more information. _What did he want him to do—ask for it?_

He was close, so close, to throwing him into reprogramming himself.

"It's Hari, sir!" he shouted with excitement.

Kylo Ren ignored him, returning his full attention to the movements of the Millennium Falcon, moving his fist towards his lips to hide the subtle smirk that tugged there.

The computer had now calculated three possible destinations: the Outer Rim, _he would lose them there_ , Genosia, _unlikely,_ and Batuu, _what would they be doing_ _there?_

"Were you stationed in the kitchen today?" Kylo asked.

"It was my shift off, but I volunteered there anyway. I like to help, it keeps me in touch with all the happenings on the ship. That's how I knew the name HR was—"

"And was there any news?" Kylo pulled his eyes away from the screen and scrutinised the stormtrooper.

"Not much. General Hux has sent the TD-squadron for reprogramming for the second time in a month—my friend Ted was in that group." Hari turned away, blinking. "The kitchen staff have been working overtime to get this latest humanitarian food shipment ready for Altarrn."

"Don't care," Kylo said flatly, poking at his meal again.

"There was one more thing the guys in supplies mentioned," he stopped now, brow furrowing. "But I'm not really supposed to—"

"You see? That's the one I want to know about."

"Apparently, Hux has ordered a secret convoy to retrieve some device on Batuu."

"Batuu?" Kylo pushed his plate away.

Hari nodded. "It's at the "black" something. I didn't quite catch the name. I wasn't supposed to be listening."

"What had he ordered them to retrieve?"

"No one knows Supreme Leader; it'top secret, I'm not even supposed to know anything about it… but I try to listen more than talk when I can."

"I find that hard to believe," Kylo grunted.

Hux and Rey convening in the same location. _Had he found her? Was she the "device"?_

"You should come one night," Hari added. "To eat with us."

Kylo checked in with him again, calculating the motive behind his words. Hari's expression was just the same as before, open, readable, honest…

"I'm not coming to the damn mess hall," Kylo growled.

And there it was. Hari's tell, a slight furrowing of the brows and tightening of the lips. He had offended him— _finally_ , but not it seemed, deterred him.

"It would mean a lot to the troopers."

"I'm sure." Kylo exhaled, letting out a sharp laugh.

"It would make you seem a little more human instead of all this…" His trembling hand gestured around the room to Kylo, the smashed walls of his bedroom, and the charred remains of Darth Vader's mask sitting atop a pile of ash. "It's bloody terrifying if I'm being completely honest."

"You really have no filter, do you? It will get you killed."

"I don't understand what you mean, sir. What kind of filter would you expect me to have?"

Kylo didn't respond, although this time he didn't bother hiding his smirk.

"A lot of the stormtroopers are pretty threatened with all the reprogramming and testing that Hux is doing right now."

"I'll consider it," he said grimly. "For now, I want you to gather up a team, loyal men you would trust with your life—and mine. They must be able to follow orders but have enough independent thought to improvise and above all, be discreet."

"I, ah, yes Supreme Leader," Hari stammered. "Would you not take your own personal guard though?"

"It's sensitive. I need to make sure my team his loyal to me, and not," he added with a scowl. "To General Hux. Is this something you can do?"

Hari's jaw dropped, mortification and quiet pride. He then rattled off a mix of individual names and designations, listing the finer attributes of each: FN-8161 from dry cleaning, he's great to have in a tight spot. Burt, all round nice guy and loyal to the Supreme Leader, KR-120, a terrible singer but handy with a blaster.

And on, and on…

Kylo didn't listen to a word of it, instead, his mind focussed, listening at a deeper level—to Hari's heart. With Force-sharpened perception, he went into Hari's thoughts. Everything linear and ordered, almost droid-like, stripped to the bare essentials. He supposed that's what programming did to them. He searched for hints of betrayal, selfish ambition, deception, anything that would confirm this was all an act to betray him.

But Kylo found nothing. He was genuine. It was hard to believe. No ulterior motives. Perhaps deep down, at a subconscious level? No. He continued his search, subtle enough he wouldn't notice.

"Hari," Kylo's interrupted. "What are you doing here?"

"Following orders, sir," Hari announced proudly, as though responding to his station master.

"And if you weren't following orders," he asked. "Why would you be here?"

Hari was speechless, staring at him with that wide-eyed innocence, but his thoughts were loud and clear. _Loyalty, friendship, compassion…_

Kylo smiled despite himself as Hari continued rattling off contenders until at last he finished and after a pause, tickled his goatee. "None of those men are pilots though, PD-8161 will tell you he is, but he wouldn't even be able to pilot a speeder."

"A pilot isn't necessary, I can fly my own ship."

"Yes, sir. Can I tell them where we're going?"

Kylo tapped once again on the planet showing on his holo-screen. "Batuu, Hari. We leave within the hour."

* * *

On the command deck of the Finalizer, Armitage Hux paced along on the bridge. He stood tall, head-raised, shoulders back, a silhouette against the vast array of space. He looked out at the stars with pompous possession, as though they were his own property.

Millicent was at his feet, his ginger-cat with gleaming yellow eyes. She pushed past his leg, leaving a light coat of fur at his ankles, purring. Her tail flicked as she prowled along the bridge, eyes fixed and deadly, melting into the shadows preoccupied with the hunt.

Hux resumed his slow, long strides until at last, he lowered himself into the command chair, watching his officers work in terrified silence.

He smiled with pride. It was a good day. The Supreme Leader had barely surfaced from his tomb, the officers had maintained a satisfying balance between respectful terror and productivity, and right now his private team were readying themselves for departure to Batuu.

Millicent pounced out of the shadows, the spidery arms and legs of an insect-like creature twitching on both sides of her mouth. She set it down at his feet and peered up at Hux expectantly.

"Disgusting," he said with a scowl, noting the crushed creature on the floor. "Someone get the fumigation team up here."

Millicent turned back to her prize, pawing the creature, breaking limbs and wings as she did so. Occasionally, letting it scurry away, the promise of freedom luring the insect to scatter to safety. But its freedom was deceptive. Millicent watched it, silent and still, the only sign of movement was the rhythmic flick of her tail.

Then she struck again, skewering the creature with a sharp stab of her claw, dragging it back into her snare. Over and over, she repeated the game, until the insect shuddered and died.

"Well done, Milly," Hux said, scratching her around the ears. Ruminating on what he had witnessed: freedom, capture, hope, torture, despair and _death_.

A valuable lesson. An adaptable plan.

Something buzzed in his pocket, and Hux removed his private communication device vibrating in his hand.

"What is it?" he hissed.

"General, the Supreme Leader was here just a moment ago. He's pulled your special troops."

"What?" Hux's face went livid, flushing red like the colour of his hair.

The doors to the command room slid open, and a great wave of darkness entered from behind him. Hux stiffened, curling his lips around his teeth, pocketing his communicator once more.

Kylo Ren loomed before him. His heavy black cape fell from his shoulders, eclipsing the light in his formidable size. His face flushed with anger. It reminded Hux of the folklore of Arkanis that told of the demons with black wings spitting fire from their eyes. Right now Ren was as close as he would ever get to one.

He liked those stories. The demons didn't scare him, as they had the other children. He liked to strategise how one might use them. How they could be manipulated to crush enemies and then discarded.

Hux smiled curtly, the curl of his lip hooking into something of a smile. "Can I help you?"

Kylo raised a single eyebrow in response.

 _Silence, was it?_ Hux's eyes flickered from Kylo's face to his hand, _loose_ , he noticed. He exhaled a sigh of relief. The Supreme Leader wanted something from him. Hux let the silence fall between them. Waiting.

"What have you found for on Batuu?" Ren's voice was soft, quiet, like the way his father used to speak before beating him cruelly across the ears with the buckle of his belt.

"We don't know what it is," he lied. "Only that it's highly illegal, and the Resistance is trying to have it for the war."

"An item?"

Hux tightened his lips together, forcing that heartless smile once more. _"You_ need not worry about it. I have assembled a team of my finest men. They will be there within the hour. We _will_ get to the bottom of this Supreme Leader. The Resistance _will_ pay."

Kylo stared back at him blankly. Unconvinced.

"We will crush these Rebels, Supreme Leader. They have no chance of standing against the First—"

"Save your rhetoric Hux," Kylo said, marching forward into his space. "I want the name of your contact. I'm taking my own team there to deal with it."

Hux stiffened, his voice barely audible between his clenched teeth. "This is far from your duties as Supreme Leader. Let me handle it."

"Let you handle it?" Kylo almost laughed at the thought.

"I mean it, I—"

Kylo held up a single finger in-front of his face. "One. Only _one_ time will I forget that you have gone behind my back to gain access to an illegal item without my knowledge or consent."

"But Supreme…"

"Let's give credence to both our intellects and finish this right now. Don't pretend for a minute you are doing this for me."

"Supreme Leader!" the general's voice echoed around the control room. "You have only ever had my loyalty."

"We'll see." Kylo turned to leave, his voice calm. "Within the week my knights will arrive. Make sure they have everything they need. Give them full access to all records and whatever else they ask."

Hux bowed, watching Millicent as she stalked another creature in the shadows. "Does that include your personal records, Supreme Leader?"

Kylo froze, and Hux smiled, satisfied his words had found their mark. "You did say _all_ records, Supreme Leader."

"Be careful, Hux," Kylo hissed back, not even favouring him with a glance as he left Hux alone and unsatisfied on the bridge.

"Incompetent…" Hux muttered as he returned to his command chair. "Deranged…" he hissed under his breath, each insult growing louder than the first.

He slunk back onto his chair, lips still moving with silent threats and insults running rampant in his mind. Millicent jumped into his lap once more, nudging her head against his hand for attention. _Kylo Ren_ , he sneered under his breath, shaking his head with a terse smile. He cupped his hands over Millicent's head, sliding his hand over her back as she arched into him, repeating the motion over and over again, each stroke firmer as he struggled to repressed the rage boiling within him. _Spineless, pitiful, barbarian, he would_ … Oh, the many things he could think of to destroy him. Then the throne of Supreme Leader would be his. And only then would the First Order be the dominant power in this universe instead of the farce it was fast becoming under Ren…

He breathed hard, right eye twitching with every stroke. Millicent tried to move away, but he pulled her back again, ignoring the way she clawed at him.

He had to be careful, underhanded. That he could do. All he needed was leverage.

"Leverage, Milly," he whispered, pulling her closer by the collar. "We need lever—."

His hand caught on something, a note with a small chip attached. He yanked it off her, brushing his fingers over the rectangular data chip and read:

 _Turbo lift security footage 34 ABY. You may find it interesting._

* * *

Streams of starlight streaked past the windows of the Millennium Falcon as Rey relaxed with a sigh. She sat with her feet up and a hot drink of tea held close to her chest. Poe's rhythmic music played through the ship's sound system and she smiled as she watched his toe tap in time with the tune. There was such a different atmosphere in the Falcon with Poe. Everything was a little more laid back as he joked and laughed with her.

He yawned casually, one arm toying with a ring that hung around a chain on his neck, the other stretching out wide until it caught on the back of Rey's chair. She glanced at it out of the corner of her eye as he held it there awkwardly.

Rey shifted in her seat as he turned to her, with a wide grin that flashed white perfect teeth, his dark eyes peering at her beneath heavy-set brows. He was a handsome guy; she had to give him that. He had manufactured a debonaire style oozing charm and confidence of one that was always in the right place at the right time, doing exactly what he was meant to be doing.

"So… this is nice," he said casually.

"Yeah." Rey sipped her tea. "Thanks for letting me drive, that was big of you."

"Well, you can take her on the hyperdrive," he said, finally dropping his arm from her chair. "I'll land her though."

Rey glared at him, and he laughed.

"Or you could land her. Although, if we're being entirely honest. Leia's kind of like a mother to me…"

"It's not your ship, Poe," Rey said.

Chewie came into the cockpit, a lone Porg pecked at a strand of his fur from his shoulder, grooming it in his beak. "Oh, hey Chewie."

"I didn't say it was my ship, only that it was _like_ my ship."

"If the ship belongs to anyone it's Leia and failing that, Chewie—isn't that right, Chewie?"

Chewie let out a contented growl from behind them as Poe pulled the ship out of hyperdrive, the rivulets of stars transforming into clear pinpricks of light.

"What are we doing?"

Poe pointed to a large asteroid belt before them. "The Harsel Belt, it's just before Batuu, but it's not a stable field. We're better off going around it manually incase there are any loose asteroids that would pulverise us at lightspeed."

"What's that?" Rey asked, pointing to the proximity alert that was now beeping at them.

"Two incoming crafts." He said searching the screens to the left of him. "Bounty hunters! Where the hell did they come from?"

Rey activated the shields, watching as the indicator on the dashboard showed them building around the ship up to 60 per cent and then … stall. She cursed.

"Oh come on!" Poe shouted. "You guys were meant to have fixed them after Veros!"

"We did fix them," Rey shouted back and Chewie bellowed, crossly.

He banked the Falcon gently to the right, towards a hazy line of grey, the two spacecraft turned alongside them. Hovering alongside them threateningly, marking them but not firing.

"What have you got in mind?"

Poe turned to her with a smile, mischievous and overly confident. "We'll lose them in there."

"The asteroid field? Are you crazy!?"

"It's not the first time it's been done," Poe said.

Chewie grumbled, leaving to fix the shields once more as BB-8 wheeled in beeping wildly.

"It's alright little buddy. Best pilot in the galaxy, remember?"

"You better be," Rey said.

The Millennium Falcon powered to the edge of the asteroid field where they were faced with pale grey rocks floating in space, dancing and crashing in unpredictable patterns. A pair smashed into each other as Poe fired the forward thrusters, sending splinters of rock showering on the ship and tapping loudly on its hull.

"Easy does it," he cooed to the ship. "Are they still following?"

"One of them is; the other is holding back outside the field."

The Falcon maneuvered carefully into the field, banking and dropping around every obstacle. Rey grasped her seat with a terse expression, her knuckles white. They were in the centre of it now, surrounded by every side. A star destroyer sized rock ricocheted off another, careening towards the Falcon. Poe flipped the ship onto its side, completing a roll as the asteroid came towards them, almost scraping the ship's underbelly.

"Hey—Jedi, can't you do something to help?" Poe said again, taking the Falcon into a deep dive to miss an oncoming rock.

"Oh right, sure," Rey answered and closed her eyes. She sought out the Force, the energy instantly electrifying around the Falcon, giving and taking. But her mouth dropped open at the realisation that Poe's gift in flying was more than skill, he was in-tune with the Force, subtly and unconsciously, he moved the controls with instinctual precision.

"That's better thanks, Rey. And hey look, we've lost the other one."

Rey was speechless, peering in shock and awe. How many others were out there? Luke was right; the Force didn't belong to the Jedi. It belonged to everyone. Rey stared at him in wonder, at the same time noticing that Poe's neck was now flushed with colour and he nodded to himself with a satisfied smile. She quickly turned away, cheeks red and very aware of how her gaze could be misconstrued.

He cleared his throat. "We're almost out now," he said, continuing to weave through the fabric of the Force as if it were no trouble at all. "Can you believe Leia bought up Del Poa?"

"It wasn't that bad, was it?"

Poe shook his head, banking hard left as three asteroids collided to the side of them. "Nah. We had it under control. I mean, perhaps if you had—"

"No," Rey's voice rose up sternly.

"What?"

"No, no," she continued, pointing at him defiantly. "It had nothing to do with me, _you're_ the one who wasn't in position."

A scattering of space rock exploded towards them. Rey flinched, but Poe didn't— determined on proving himself right.

"The guy walked straight past me. I couldn't just let it go!" Poe said with passion.

"And _I_ had to make sure you weren't walking into a trap … which, by the way, you were!"

"I had it under control," Poe said louder this time, lips tightening around every word.

"And so did I," she replied, staring straight ahead. Chewie groaned behind them at the start of another argument.

The Falcon continued on in silence, deftly rolling this way and that until they finally saw the hint of empty space before them. Poe breathed in loudly through his nose, lips clamped in a tight line, while Rey chewed on the inside of her lip. _Hot-headed fly-boy._

She took a deep breath and tried to remove the challenging tone in her words. "Anyway, it didn't end up mattering what we did. The First Order still got what they wanted."

"Yeah," Poe replied, but his voice was still sharp. "What I wouldn't give to burn the whole First Order to the ground—starting with that lunatic Kylo Ren."

Rey stiffened and glared at him but Poe didn't even notice, his attention consumed by the path ahead.

"You know you're talking about Leia's son." Rey tried to say it calmly, but each word was strained.

"That is not Leia's son!" he shouted at her almost hitting an asteroid. "Don't even pretend that monster is Leia's son."

A wave of heat surged through Rey's body. "You can't pretend he's not!"

"Rey, I don't know what meditating and lifting rocks on that island has done to you but…"

She forced a bitter laugh. "Lifting rocks?"

"Whatever, If you're trying to defend that sick basta—"

"I'm not defending him!" She tried to relax—to slow her rapid breathing but her body was tense all over. She continued, slowly, pointedly, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice.

"All I'm saying is that whatever he's become, he was once Ben Solo. He had a family, people that loved him before Snoke twisted him."

"He twisted himself!" Poe spat, surging out of the asteroid field at last and turning to her with a pointed finger. "As far as I'm concerned, Ben Solo is dead and you'd be wise to think that way too."

Rey stood up a little too fast. She pushed down the emerging feeling of slapping him across the back of the head and took a long, slow breath. _Anger is the path to the dark side_ , she reminded herself but if she was entirely honest at that moment—she didn't really care. "I'm going to help Chewie out back. Call me if you need me."

"Yeah, hurry back now," he added sharply.

She turned to leave, looking back once in silence at her friend. The Force was bristling with anger around him, as it was around her. _He didn't know._ No one knew the conflict that was tearing Ben apart.

"I thought you were going," Poe huffed.

She came back to him and placed a hand on the back of his chair. Immediately she felt the emotions of the room change. Anger resided, brushed away as a storm blows out to sea.

"Not everything is black and white, Poe," she said softly.

Poe smiled, not looking back at her. "Actually, Rey, it is. You should know that more than anyone. Light and dark, good and evil, First Order, Resistance."

She reflected on his words and thought about the Jedi texts sitting in her room. She had waded through them every night, trying to decipher small puzzles of a larger problem. Some of the pieces had been written more recently, in a language that she was able to translate through Leia's decoder. One of those passages sprung to mind.

"Only the Sith deal in absolutes."

Poe fired full thrusters again, nearing a bright sun that centred around a few moving planets. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"It means," she shook her head. "We don't know what the future has planned for Ben Solo, for any of us. He may yet turn."

"Yeah, when hell freezes over." He pushed the button on the intercom. "Chewie, we're coming up to Batuu. Prepare to land.

"Are you going help me land this ship or not?" He turned back to look at her.

She sat back down beside him, taking the controls in her hands slowly, feeling deflated.

"Anyway," Poe continued. "Let's just say that he turns. Do you think the galaxy is going to forgive him for what he's done? Do you think they should?"

Rey said nothing, staring silently at the solar system before them.

"They'll want blood, Rey. Regardless of what side he's on. Ben Solo is dead one way or another."

They were coming up to Batuu now, lush and verdant green spreading before them. _Perhaps he was right_ , she thought. _No._ She knew he was right.

"And the fact that you're even talking about this—honestly, it's just weird, Rey."

She turned away from him, away from the light of the sun and rested her eyes on the vast emptiness of the Outer Regions beyond them. "What can I say, perhaps I learnt it from Luke. We have to hope, without it we have nothing."

"You're a fighter, Rey." Poe reached out and squeezed her arm, his eyes lingering on her. "I like that about you. Now, let's talk about your role as the only Jedi in the Resistance…

Rey shuddered. Batuu couldn't come soon enough.

Thank You!

I want to give credit to my amazing beta reader who is helping me make this story into what it is.

The Aberrant Writer Girl who stays up into the wee hours with me working this into something mildly readable. She gives so much of her time and is an amazing author. Check out her work.

Lastly, if you want to come and chat, you will find me on Tumblr at Pathfinder.


	8. Chapter 8

Convergence

 _We're not finished yet!_ Those were the venomous words he'd spoken to her as the Force ripped them apart, again.

Kylo Ren tightened his grip around the flight controls of his upsilon-class command shuttle, an involuntary tic flicking in his jaw as he tensed at the memory.

That night Rey had forced herself into his mind and stolen precious thoughts. Truths he would have hidden from her.

But now she knew everything.

And she still hated him.

She had that look in her eye that night. That wild, violent expression. He'd seen it before when she fought the Praetorian guards. And he'd felt it the night she came to him in his chambers. Anger. Loathing. _Monster_. His heart raced at the thought.

 _Why wouldn't she hate him?_ He'd lashed out in the only way he knew, with rage and destruction. And then she was on the ground, face white and livid, her quarterstaff smouldering in two halves.

He realised what destroying it meant to her. Through the Bond he had seen the lonely nights she'd spent filing the rough edges, making sure the weight was balanced and using it to scavenge the wreckage of star destroyers disintegrating in the desert sands. He'd watched her practising in the light of the setting sun, fierce and determined. And the moment she first used it to fight for her survival, crossing the ship's graveyard in Jakku under a new moon. The nightwatcher worm had surprised her, bursting from the sand with teeth sharp enough to grind metal. She'd fought and killed it that night, coming home covered in its blood, and her own.

She'd earned her freedom with that quarterstaff.

And he'd destroyed it all.

He pushed his hand through his dark hair, frowning **.**

"Your hair looks good," a voice dragged him back to present.

 _Hari_. He was an inch away from throwing him out the airlock. The renegade stormtrooper sat next to him as acting co-pilot. Hari knew nothing about flying, but it helped to have an extra pair of hands available to control a shuttle like this.

Kylo glowered at him.

"I mean it. Did you do something to it because it…"

"Focus on the task at hand."

Hari nodded, turning his attention to the many dials and flashing lights spread out in front of him. "Never thought I'd be flying a ship."

"You're not. You're pushing buttons when I tell you too. It hardly qualifies as flying."

"As you say, Supreme Leader," he said with a smile.

"Get ready. We're coming into the atmosphere."

Kylo drove the command ship to freefall through the exosphere. The planet of Batuu filled their vision with its forest greens and deep blue lakes, brushed with swirls of high clouds. As they fell, the view out the window changed, tinted pink and then deepening into a red and orange as it ripped into the stratosphere. The ship slowed, and he felt gravity settle around him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hari holding onto his seat, jaw clenched and sweat caked over his near-bald head.

The ship settled into a quiet glide as it dipped beneath the clouds, revealing blankets of coniferous forest, speared apart by columns of schist rock and then a small cityscape made up of sprawling rivers of silver and blue domes.

Kylo felt his heart jolt at the sight. The last time he was here, he'd only been a child, buckled in behind Han and Chewie, telling Uncle Lando about his dreams to explore all the unknown regions of the Outer Rim. Lando had ruffled his hair. "I bet you will, Little Starfighter!" he'd said with a laugh. The memory was like a knife to his chest.

And now, somewhere down there was Rey.

"Are your men clear on their mission?" Kylo asked.

"Yes, Supreme Leader. We go in, find the girl, and—"

"No one touches her," they both said in unison.

"I've got it." Hari gripped the controls, his hands guided by Kylo's movement. "What's so special about this girl, anyway?"

Kylo's expression hardened as he piloted the ship towards the spaceport.

"She's responsible for the death of Supreme Leader Snoke," he told him gravely.

Hari swallowed. "Right."

"And she killed the Praetorian guards."

"Okay." Hari nodded, his eyes fixed ahead.

"And she bested me and left me to die." The skin under Kylo's right eye twitched, and he stiffened at the way Hari watched him.

"And you're worried about _us_ touching her?"

Kylo chuckled. "You're probably right. She would crush you. All the more reason for you not to touch her."

He levelled the ship above the spaceport, a scattering of aliens and droids guiding them to a free landing port.

"Well, here goes nothing," Hari muttered.

Kylo brought the shuttle to land. The giant wings of the command ship raising up like a bird of a prey as it lowered to the ground in a cloud of vapours and flashing lights.

The mouth of the ship opened allowing a rush of fresh air to enter the cabin, smelling of rich earth and moss.

He stood atop the landing ramp, a line of stormtroopers behind him. Faceless, although no longer nameless, men in white armour. He looked them over deliberately, each of them standing at attention, their emotions fluctuating between fear and excitement. Waiting for his command.

Kylo marched out with long, determined strides. "Follow my lead."

* * *

They waited in the darkest corner of the Black Spire Inn. Rey scanned the bar, unsure of who or even what she should look for. Beside her Poe leaned back, arms behind his head and legs outstretched, crossed at the ankles.

The room was lively with the rise and fall of different accents and languages, clashing beneath a grey haze of smoke.

Poe glanced slyly in her direction before yawning and stretching his right arm out along the booth above her.

They sat like that together, stiff and silent.

"This is cozy," he said, edging his hand closer to her shoulder.

Her hazel eyes flashed with warning to Poe's arm, stretched out behind her, a fixed snare waiting to ambush.

"I'm kidding, Rey!" Poe laughed at her, dropping his hand to her shoulder with a squeeze. "But really, we'll have to do this again."

She choked, something between a laugh and a snort, swallowing a large gulp of ale to cover it up. "Sure. We could also just stay home and fight, you know, without all the danger?"

The truth was the trip had been nice in the beginning. They had laughed and joked for a good part before the fighting began. She'd never noticed until now how Finn and Rose had always been there to diffuse their differing opinions. Left alone, they operated on different frequencies but with equal measures of passion.

"You really should have your lightsaber on you," Poe said, interrupting her thoughts. "So people can see you're a Jedi."

"It's broken." She placed her half-empty glass on the bench with an irritated thud.

"Still? It's been broken since—"

"Yes. It's _still_ broken."

"Well, you need to fix it, Rey. You're a Jedi. People need to know you have what it takes to defeat—"

"Really?" Rey snapped to face him with an incredulous expression. "Are we going to do this again because I thought our last argument was enough to put this topic to bed?"

Poe raised an eyebrow. "No, we definitely haven't put anything to bed yet."

Rey groaned, the heat rising in her cheeks. She wanted to sink under the booth, crawl away into the crowd to find another transport back to Soreilia. Anything other than—

A heavy hand slammed down on their table, making them both jump.

 _Unkar Plutt_! Her blood chilled at the sight of him. S _tarvation, survival, unquenching thirst, always alone._ Visions raced through her mind, dragging all her childhood insecurities before her.

The Crolute peered at them with his good eye, the other eye charred and deformed with fused skin and metal.

Rey breathed a sigh of relief. _Not Plutt_ , but another of his kind.

"You Dameron?" he asked with a low growl.

Poe stared at the creature, a look of revolution spread across his face. "Dred?"

The Crolute nodded, his chins doubling up with every swagger of his head.

"You got the stone there, bud?" Poe asked him stiffly.

"You got the cred, Fly-Boy?"

Poe pushed forward a stack of gold credit chips as Dred's gaping mouth twitched at the edges in a hungry smile. Satisfied, he removed the stone from his pocket and placed it on the table. That was until he saw her.

Dred froze, and with a low groan slid his vulgar cream tongue over his lips, drinking in the sight of her. Rey shifted in her seat, her hands flicking off the safety on her blaster.

Poe looked between them both. His expression hardening at how Dred's fingers twitched and his yellow eyes burned into her.

"I suggest you keep your eyes on the prize unless you want them lasered out of your head," Poe said sharply.

Dred tore his eyes away, releasing a low-rumbling laugh as he put a small black box at the centre of the table. Poe reached for it, but Dred gripped his hand roughly. "Hold it."

Rey watched as Dred counted up the credits between his thick fingers. The sight forced her mind back to the dry heat and barren wastelands that had been her home. How many times had she risked her life to scrounge those desert wrecks day after day? How needed to fight for what was rightfully hers, constantly targeted by gangs of scavengers who saw her isolation and gender as an easy target? And for what? One pitiful quarter portion, sometimes less.

She sat watching the Crolute counting the credits, and she was that little girl in the desert, abandoned and alone, marking lines across a barren wall. Lines of hope. False hope.

 _You're not alone._

The words haunted her from that secret place in her mind. She pushed them away.

Dred finished counting, his black eyes shifting back to Rey as though he'd trade all of it for her.

Poe stiffened beside her, and she noticed his arm dropping from her shoulders and casually down to his blaster beneath the table. "You got a problem there, sleemo?"

"That girl," Dred hissed, licking his lips again. "She's got one hell of a bounty on her head."

"What?" Poe asked with disbelief, but Rey only looked down, white-knuckled, clutching her ale as though it contained all the answers of the universe.

"I don't know the details," he said, searching the room to check if anyone else had discovered his prize. "All I know is the First Order has put out a bounty of 500,000 credits for anyone who can bring her to the Finaliser alive…"

"Half a million! That's unheard of," Poe muttered.

"Biggest one ever offered." Dred leaned forward, getting into Rey's space, his putrid breath spilling out into her face. "Makes me wonder what you did to them to get that kind of number on your head."

Rey's throat went dry and dread filled her. _Had Ben actually put that bounty on her head?_ When all was said and done, she didn't think he would have gone that far...

"Are we done here?" Poe asked.

Dred moved his ugly face between them. Contemplating his next move.

"We done?" Poe asked again, but this time he placed the blaster flat on the table, pointing to Dred with his finger resting on the trigger.

"Of course," Dred told them, backing away with a pointed sneer.

As soon as he was gone, Poe turned to Rey. "What the hell was that about?"

"I have no idea." Rey buried her face into her tankard again, letting the silence fall between them as she avoided his gaze.

She thought back to the sight of Ben, unconscious on the throne room floor, his dark hair spread across his face like black gauze. The air stunk of singed flesh, and the soft rain of burning embers cascaded around him. It was Chewie who had helped her escape. She had climbed aboard, shaken and bloody. They exchanged no words or vowed any promises but he had never spoken of it to anyone, nor had she shared it. The secret was trapped inside her. She would tell them, _one day_...

She was about to have another drink when the air was stolen from her lungs, ripping her from her reverie.

The sensation was intense, painful. Her insides filled with a cold darkness as her heart pounded violently in her chest.

She grasped hold of the table, feeling like the very fabric that held her together was being torn apart. Her heartbeat became erratic, jolting as it raced and slowed. She turned to Poe for help and saw he had opened the box, only a crack, but enough for him to study the devouring darkness within.

She gasped, reaching for his forearm. "Poe!"

He turned at her touch, eyes widening in horror. Immediately, he snapped the black box closed, and Rey felt the darkness inside her being pulled away. She collapsed back in her chair, sucking in large, gasping breaths.

Poe's neck turned a bright hue of red. "Sorry Rey, I forgot—"

"What was that?" she demanded, eyes stinging with tears.

"It's a Severing Stone. It attacks Force users, so they can't manipulate the..."

"It does a hell of a lot more than that Poe!" Rey said, still clutching at her heart as it struggled to stabilise. "Why on earth would you buy that? Do you have any idea what that just did to me?"

"Well, we're obviously not going to use it on you, are we?"

She stared ahead, her lips trembling. "It's for Kylo Ren."

"Technically, it's for anyone who attacks us using the Force." He folded the box away, placing it in his jacket pocket. "But I bought it for Ren."

Poe's comlink buzzed. "Chewie is ready for us. Come on, Let's get out of here."

Rey stood up slowly, needing to lean on the table for support, her body still weak. She took one step forward, and the ground quaked with echoing vibration. The hairs on her arms shot up, and she felt her heart and breath synchronising into sharp unison.

 _The Force Bond._

It was opening to her, but it was... different. Not the gradual sensation of slipping into a silent void but this time it was like a clap of thunder reverberating before her, almost painful with its suddenness.

She looked up, Ben's dark eyes meeting hers at the exact same moment. Her vision tunnelled, focusing on him and everything else around her went black. _He was_ —

"Here," he said as he strode forward with pressing purpose. "You're here."

Rey's stumbled back, closing the connection. _He was right outside. He was coming for them._

She clutched Poe's arm desperately, dragging him towards her.

"What the?"

"The First Order is here," she said, breathless. "It's a trap, we—-"

A sound of laser fire made them spin around as dozens of stormtroopers spilled into the busy tavern.

* * *

Raw energy flowed tumultuously beyond the double doors of the gambling hall as though it were like a storm surge crashing against a sea wall. Kylo Ren took a deep breath, trying to anchor the wild turmoil within. She would sense it straight away, he thought, his fear, his anger, his excitement.

"Are you ready, Sir?" Hari asked, his eyes fixed on Kylo's trembling fingers.

Kylo balled his hand into a fist, pulling it close to his body. Thoughts racing. He demanded vengeance for probing his mind, for exposing his guilt and shame. Yet, beneath it all, there was an underlying restless ache bearing down on him, that despite all she had done, he still wanted to see her, just once, with his own eyes.

He tugged off his gloves, running his fingers through his hair, gaze burning through the back of the door as though he sensed the exact point where she stood.

"Shall we go in?" Hari asked with the slightest hint of a smile.

Kylo inhaled sharply and gave a nod. Together they pushed the large double doors open to face the prisoners.

A circle of stormtroopers waited with blasters locked on the two captives in the middle with arms raised.

Kylo recognised Poe Dameron, arrogant, self-righteous, still oozing confidence even in a scrape like this.

And then his eyes fell to Rey. She was smaller than he remembered. Slight but muscular, her hair untied at the bottom and falling freely on her shoulders. His heart thundered as a wild fathier in his chest as the sight of her. Her own Force presence was overwhelming. She was a firestorm, so bright in the light, a picture of warmth and beauty. And he was darkness, powerful, all-encompassing, yet somehow unworthy of everything that stood before him. He froze at the sight of her.

"Well done, men," Hari stormed past him, his voice carried an air of authority that surprised Kylo.

Meanwhile, he—Supreme Leader of the First Order—could barely breathe.

Kylo advanced, his eyes fixed on Rey. The last time they were together like this they had fought side by side. Now she wouldn't even look at him. Her eyes downcast to the floor, an attempt to appear penitent, Kylo thought. He saw it for what it was. Measured. Waiting.

He came closer, eyes moving over her body."The resistance has lost. There is nothing left to fight for, and nobody left to fight with."

He sensed Poe's anger bristling in the Force, the pilot wanted to fight them to the end, going down in a blaze of glory.

But Rey? She had gained control over her emotions, giving nothing away.

"We will never stop fighting until the FIrst Order burns to the ground — and you with it," Poe shouted.

Kylo ignored his pointless threats, keeping his eyes fixed on Rey.

She still wouldn't look at him. But now, her hold on the Force was slipping, it burned in disarray around her. She tried to appear calm but he sensed something stirring within her…

"Take him away and search him," Kylo ordered Hari, not looking away from her.

"Yes, Supreme Leader," Hari said with a curt nod. "All of you follow me."

The soldiers turned and dragged Poe into a small private gambling room, kicking and shouting the entire way until his shouts muffled behind a slammed door.

They were alone now, in silence so thick that Kylo was sure she could have heard his heart burning like the furnace of emotion it was. His lips parted at the sight of her dark lashes touching below her eyes, her skin, sun-kissed and warm with freckles endearingly scattered over her nose and cheeks.

"Rey," he bit on the inside of his mouth. "Look at me."

She turned her face further away from him. He smirked at her obstinance. But then, as the silence lingered between them, his brow furrowed and his face flushed hot with irritation.

He resolved to his purpose. _Find the weapon. Capture the rebels._

"I suppose Luke put you up to that," he said bitterly.

She looked up at him, her gaze cold and unyielding, forced. "Luke's dead."

"We both know he's not gone though."

She exhaled with a roll of her eyes, fixing her gaze, away from him once more. "Luke didn't put me up to anything. I wanted to know what we were up against."

Kylo's lips were tight. "As do I."

He lifted his hand before her face, just has he had done so in Takodana.

"What are you doing?" Rey asked, her voice high.

"You won't be surprised if I return the favour then?"

She stiffened, trying to close herself off to him. He remembered the first time he'd seen her, awkward and gangly, firing random blaster shots in his direction. Even then, there was something about her. She was more than a girl. More than a scavenger.

"Tell me about the weapon."

His hand stretched closer to her face, and he noticed her trembling. _Why wasn't she fighting him?_ His fingers reached out, searching for a thread to unravel her thoughts. The Force closed around her, creating an invisible wall to shield her mind. He pushed harder, sensing her emotions wild, fearful and … _embarrassed_.

"Something's changed." His words were quiet, contemplating. He reached closer to her, fingers stretched apart, as though he could grasp her secret.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she snapped and turned her face away from him. The tide around him shifted again, unreadable and restless.

"Something you don't want me to see…" he said to himself. "Something…"

 _Tende_ r. Kylo's chest tightened, and he felt the pull of the light more than he'd ever experienced before. It pulled him through the softness of her lips, the simple natural beauty of her being, and at last the spirit and resolve shaped by the barren harshness of a world that had abandoned and betrayed her. A woman who was in every way equal to his power but with one vital difference. She would never sway from the light.

He reached his hand closer still, and she braced herself against the intrusion.

He watched the hastening rise and fall of her chest and the rose-coloured hue of her cheeks and before he even knew what he was doing, his fingertips brushed gently against her face, the heat of her skin radiating through him as though he were standing beneath the sun. His touch lingered on her soft cheeks and her hazel eyes met his own as they stared at each other in silence.

"Ben," she whispered his name, and this time it spoke deep into his heart. "Come back."

He couldn't breathe, he couldn't speak and he couldn't let go of her, not now.

His mind was filled with the thought of her, the sound of her voice, the way the Force moved around her, gentle and alluring. And for the first time in many years, he knew exactly what he wanted.

* * *

When Poe Dameron was dragged away, thrashing like a caged animal, he had one thought in his mind: _save Rey_.

"Get your hands off me!" he shouted, sending a savage kick towards the kneecap of his closest captor. He hit his mark but at the same time, he felt a sharp crack against the back of his skull.

"Cut it out." The lead stormtrooper came before him. "What did you come here to buy?"

"Nothing," Poe spat at him. "Some fuel, medicines, that's it!"

"Search him," he replied and Poe cringed as his pockets were emptied and his jacket pillaged.

"We found it, Hari." One of the storm trooper's pulled the black box out of Poe's jacket pocket and held it up. Poe felt his stomach drop to the floor. Kylo Ren would definitely kill them now, if there had ever been any chance he was going to let them live anyway.

But he couldn't think about that now, Rey was with that monster, probably being tortured, having her mind broken apart. Poe Dameron did not like feeling helpless, ever. He clenched his teeth as he waited to hear Rey's screams as Kylo Ren ripped the thoughts out of her head. Every secret about the Resistance exposed. And _Leia_ , he would find Leia.

"Shall we take this to the Supreme Leader?"

Hari, peered through a glass window in the door, momentarily silent at whatever he saw there. "Not yet."

"You've got what you wanted. Now take me back to my friend," Poe shouted, struggling once more.

Hari ignored him and his soldiers gathered around to see what he was looking at. Poe noticed the uneasy looks between them, and he felt a growing sense of a dread of whatever was happening behind that door.

"She doesn't know anything!" Poe pushed himself forward with every inch of strength in his body until he came close enough to get a glimpse of Rey. She was safe, for now...

"I'm the one you want—-"

"He's not going to hurt her," Hari dismissed him with a wave of his blaster. "Now keep your mouth shut before we blast it off your face."

Poe pursed his lips, confused, still straining to see Rey.

Kylo Ren had his arm outstretched to her now and her face was ashen white. Poe's heart raced, waiting to hear the screams, to see her buck back in the pain of having information yanked from her mind as he had once experienced.

But she did not scream, or flinch, and if he hadn't known how much she hated him, he might have thought… He didn't know what he might have thought.

Kylo must have sensed them watching. At the sight of Poe, his arm dropped like a dead weight before indicating for his guards to enter.

"Move on then," Hari pushed Poe forward.

"Rey! Are you okay?" He cried out to her and she nodded quickly, her face flushed.

Poe felt a shiver down his spine, he couldn't put a word to it but there was something electric in the air, like the convergence of two storms.

As the guards pushed him forward he saw the anger in Kylo Ren's face, his lips trembling and wet, and his eyes smouldering. Anger was good, he thought. He could use it to his advantage.

Kylo turned to Rey again, an involuntary movement, as though he were drawn there. And then Poe saw the shadow fall away, Kylo's scornful face broke with something soft and wanting and then Poe realised that he hadn't been so far off the mark when he joked to Rey about Kylo Ren going easy on her.

Poe's grinned, "Are we finished here? Because Rey and I were in the middle of something."

Rey's eyes grew wide and a subtle shake of her head only encouraged Poe to continue this line of attack.

"How about you, Rey? Let's say we finish our date and leave this…"

"It wasn't a date," she said curtly and silently mouthed a plea to stop.

Kylo looked between them and Poe knew he was close to exploding, he just hoped when Kylo finally lost it, Rey would have the sense to disable him and get the stone, while he took out the stormtroopers.

"I'm afraid murderous psychopaths aren't her style," he continued to bait him, but Kylo was no longer listening. His guard Hari was handing him the box with the severing stone. Kylo put his gloves back on and studied the markings on the box.

He held it out to Poe with narrow eyes. "What is this?"

"Open it!" Poe willed him, but Kylo only turned the box thoughtfully in his hands.

"And who would this be for?" his question was to Rey now.

She hesitated, looking away from him in answer.

"Who do you think?" Poe said snidely.

A black glove shot out and Poe felt as though an invisible force hit him in the stomach, he bent over gasping for hair when he felt his neck constrict, narrowing the airflow.

"Stop it!" Rey shouted.

"You know this could kill you." Kylo held the box out before her.

"It's obviously not for me, is it?"

"Rey!" croaked Poe, his hands pawed at his neck, trying to pull away whatever force was squeezing the life out of him.

"And you would use it? Knowing what it does," Kylo asked.

"Rey…" Poe's voice was little more than a croak now and he began to see flashes of light dance like mini explosions in his eyes. He pulled at his throat harder, trying to suck in what little air he could.

"Stop it!" She shouted again. "You're killing him!"

This time she raised her hand towards Poe and he finally felt a loosening of the grip around his neck, but only slightly. The Force hold around his neck tightened and weakened, all the time Poe tried to suck in air that wouldn't come. The room trembled and twisted, spiralling into darkness.

He heard her shouting, pleading, until the grip loosened just enough for him to take one last breath before he slumped forward motionless on the ground.

 **Thank You!**

I want to give credit to my amazing beta reader who is helping me make this story into what it is.

The Aberrant Writer Girl who stays up into the wee hours with me working this into something mildly readable. She gives so much of her time and is an amazing author. Check out her work.

Lastly, if you want to come and chat, you will find me on Tumblr at wayofthepathfinder


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